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Gamecube Software Support Waning?
Thanks to Shacknews for pointing to a CNET News report discussing the declining amount of titles being planned or released for the Nintendo Gamecube. It quotes an Activision spokesman as saying "I think it's good for the industry as a whole if you have three strong players, but that's not the direction it's going." Is the Gamecube third-party software support on its way out?
(Read that like Ballmer would.)
The problem for Nintendo is and always has been lack of quality titles from 3rd party developers. Their in-house games are high quality, but you can't support a console on one must-have game every 4 months.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
For as long as I can remember, Nintendo hasn't had a monster catalog of games available. Sony's Playstation had more games available than the SNES or N64, PS2 has more games than Gamecube. However, that's not the reason that I (or other gamers, I assume) buy the console. It's not about how many games are available, but how many that you would actually *want* to play. It doesn't matter that every possible sports title is available on PS2 if I'm not interested in playing sports games.
My take on things is, the games that are available for the Gamecube are good, high quality games that people want to play. As a result, I don't think that Nintendo is going away any time soon.
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
Nintendo has what _should_ be a very easily used platform: IBM processor, ATI graphics card, pretty straightforward architecture. The Sony PS2 has all kinds of heavily proprietary hardware, yet it has the vast lead in third-party software. Is it Nintendo's traditionally draconian licensing schemes, the mini-DVD format, what?
MORTAR COMBAT!
Its because microsoft can afford to buy all the third party gaming titles (rare) and therefore fewer games will be released for the gamecube. they are doing the same shit that got them into trouble in the 90's, using their wealth and monopolistic position to squash any potential competition. the only reason that MS lost over 1 billion dollars last year on the xbox was because they were spending all that coin on buying third party gaming titles. so 2 or 3 years down the road, the only games that will be released will be for xbox or playstion.
Forget my previous post, i hit submit before i could finish...anyway....here's what i wanted to say....
Some flaws in the argument in the article
A)The article says that sales for the gamecube hardware are behind previous estimates
1)The xbox sales actually exceed gamecube sales by a very small percentage;
2)also doesnt state that estimates were a few thousand units behind or millions - big difference, if only a few thousand behind no big deal, right?
B)The gamecube was developed with third party players in mind. The N64 was impossible to program for (according to game companies), and nintenod knew this and came out with the cube to make game development much easier.
C)If you follow gamecube news at all, all you hear about is how nintendo needs to up third party development, which i personally think it's doing , and nintendo knows it needs to do this, and as the article states it is in the process of attracting game developers.
D)Anything that's not on the cube can be played on pc, anything that is not on pc cannot be played on the cube:zelda, metroid, mario kart, etc.. (xbox fanboys:halo is coming out for pc)
I honestly cant think of one game that i want to play that is *console specific* that cant be played on another medium, besides gamecube games.
My view is the same as a few people who posted here: Even with a waning third party support, Nintendo itself is able to publish some excellent games for the cube. PS2 is technologically backwards, and nearly all its good games can be played either on the PC or on the Xbox (or even the gamecube). The Xbox's advantage is Xbox Live, but many of its good single player games can be played on the PC (halo is comming too)...
:D
The gamecube already has an AMAZING list of great single player games, all exclusive... and I am sure nintendo is planning to lure in some third party developers (and famous names in the business as well). Take Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid games)...he's going to start doing exclusive stuff with nintendo and the cube.
But if you are in doubts, check out the highest scoring games of the cube and the xbox at IGN.com. You'll see that nearly all good xbox games are either multi-platform, or are coming out for the pc, while nearly all gamecube gems are exclusive titles...
Now dont get me wrong, i have an xbox and love it, but i think that if you have a good pc, the Cube is a great console to get, because of all the amazing exclusive games it has...or get both consoles and be really happy
Bought XBox, GameCube when both were released.
XBox gigantic and noisy, controllers sucked, especially for my seven-year-old son with whom I do most of my gaming. Halo was stupendous, Jet Set Radio Future was trippy-excellent, most everything else was underwhelming. I'm bored with the console FPS stuff that is nearly all you can get for it. I bought probably 12 titles and rented several, but after it collected four solid months of dust, I sold it.
GameCube was a totally different story. Small, quiet, with genius controllers. Then the WaveBird wireless controllers came out and I couldn't believe how perfect they were. Several top-notch games that I have basically never stopped playing after I beat them: Pikmin, Rogue Leader, Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime, Zelda, Godzilla:DAMM, Monkey Ball, Eternal Darkness, and several others I'm spacing right now. Mario Sunshine and StarFox were clever but had little staying power.
Clearly I'm skewed towards the out-of-the-ordinary games that for some reason rarely show up on PS2 or XBox. (This is why we still bust out the Dreamcast once in a while.) But the GameCube could disappear today and I'd be forever glad I got one--it has been simply awesome.
Forget the FUD--GC has sold enough units to make Nintendo $$$, and the GameBoy juggernaut will keep them in business forever. Play the games you like, forget about the "big three" competition gossip--it's for industry hacks.