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Eidos To Stop GameCube Development

Posted by simoniker on from the lara-and-kirby-not-chums dept.

Thanks to The Times Online for their article indicating that Eidos has announced that they will no longer develop GameCube titles. The article, based on comments made as the company announced their financial results, explains that "...there were no plans for Eidos, Europe's second largest games developer, to release any games for the struggling GameCube, which has sold about 1.8 million units in Europe compared with sales of 15 million for Sony's PS2." Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey commented: "The GameCube is a declining business... If other companies follow us [Nintendo] will have a hard battle to fight." This follows similar anti-GameCube comments by Acclaim a couple of months back.

4 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Do 1st party games rule the GC? by clu76 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have a fairly descent sized Gamecube library. And I noticed something today after reading this article. More than half of my GC library consists of Nintendo 1st party games. Granted, I'm a Nintendo fanboy, through and through. But it got me thinking. Maybe one of the reasons 3rd party developers don't fair so well on the Cube is because (as a generalization), those who buy Nintendo consoles buy Nintendo produced games. Could it be that Nintendo games are so popular for the system, that they take away sales from 3rd party developers, contributing to the problem of having 3rd parties to stop developing for the cube?

    --
    the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
    1. Re:Do 1st party games rule the GC? by Sentry21 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, it's just that all the other games suck.

      Nintendo is making (and contracting/funding) high-quality, innovative games - Eternal Darkness, Metroid, Animal Crossing, Zelda, and so on. These games are awesome, and are worth the price paid for them. The problem is that there are so few good games being released today, and they have to spread themselves over three consoles.

      Back in the SNES days, all the good games were SNES games, because that's all there was - unless you liked sports games. The Genesis wasn't a competitor, ever. Then came the Playstation - now, I love Nintendo, but the N64's lineup was pathetic from start to dismal dying finish.

      Now, we have three great consoles - except that the PS2 stops reading blue discs, and XBox games tend often to have bugs in them, it seems, but they still work more often than not.

      So what good games are there? Final Fantasy X/X2 (PS2); SW:KOTOR (XBox); Resident Evil 4 (GC); Mario Golf (GC); F-Zero (GC); Halo 2 (XBox); Arc the Lad (PS2); Tales of Symphonia (GC). That's just to name a few.

      Notice something? To play this fall's (impressive) lineup, you need to spend $700 just on consoles to be able to play the games. There are three systems to choose from, each with a selection of games... But there's no pattern.

      F-Zero and Mario Golf for Gamecube, so kiddie games, right? Er, and Resident Evil? Splinter Cell? Ok, well the PS2 is good for RPGs... unless you want Skies of Arcadia Legends, KOTOR, or Tales of Symphonia. And the XBox, of course, is good for the darker games (except RE4), and the sports games (unless you want to play EA's offerings online).

      The reason that there aren't 'any good games' for platform X is because the developers have to spread their developing oevr multiple platforms. Me, I'll just wait until (like Metal Gear or Splinter Cell) they bring it to the GC with perks, features, or upgrades.

      --Dan

  2. Time 2 Split! by M3wThr33 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In other news, Free Radical will no longer let Eidos publish their titles, so TimeSplitters 3 will most likely still be Cube-bound.

    But really this is all about how Nintendo is slow to bring games over to Europe.
    I mean, the GameCube has more million-sellers worldwide(AND in the USA as well) than the XBox. Nintendo's raking in over $1 MILLION profit a DAY. I really fail to see a problem with a losing company pulling out.
    What's been the last couple failed companies?
    Eidos, Acclaim, 3D0 and Interplay? Oh yeah! Tons of blockbusters there! (Pardon HOMM and Fallout) American programmers need to learn to program better, rather than chickening out. Good to know they would rather go where it's easiest and presents no challenge of sales to profit.

  3. The problem I find with Gamecube... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Is the name. They should have stuck with the legacy and called it Nintendo . I have a Game Cube, and it it doesn't feel like Nintendo 64 did.

    "I'm going to play Nintendo" vs. "I'm going to play Game Cube".