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Gamecube Software Support Waning?

Posted by simoniker on from the survival-of-the-fittest dept.

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?

2 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Releases may be waning, but... by analog_line · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As a matter of fact, the Dreamcast had almost twice the number of games released for it in the US as the Nintendo 64, which was out for what...5 years? Compared to the Dreamcast's 1.5 year run.

  2. Re:Is quality of cross platform games an issue? by ubikkibu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can comment on TH:PS3, TH:PS4, Spider-Man, TimeSplitters 2, LoTR, Harry Potter, SSX Tricky having actually played them on multiple platforms. And I've read every "platform shootout" review on IGN when games come out for all 3.

    The results are almost always consistent. XBox pushes more polygons while maintaining some more advanced lighting effects. GC next, PS2 third unless the developers gave short shrift to a certain platform.

    You're completely wrong--the GameCube is obviously more capable than the PS2 for video. Both have limitations, but even with the giant developer community, great support from Sony, and years more to learn the tricks of the platform, PS2 games rarely show better than the same GC titles. Again, generalizing. And the XBox beats both easily, again with some exceptions.

    GameCube has great sound when there's real DPLII support (which is most of the time), PS2 games vary wildly, but the XBox DTS output is the best. Yes, I've had all 3 hooked up to my surround sound setup, and component video for GC and XBox.

    GameCube suffers from slightly less storage, and so FMV sequences are sometimes badly compressed.

    Having said all that--who gives a crap. Good games look, sound, and play great on all 3 (if you can handle the dain-bramaged XBox controllers). Full motion video rarely adds to a title. Games are for playing, not for comparing. EA will always shovel out crap that underlines how the game industry--with happy exception of Nintendo first-party stuff--has completely forgotten what makes gaming fun. GameCube easily holds its own in the fun department.