GameCube Dropped To $99 At Online Retailer

JFMulder writes "Retail partners Amazon.com and Toys 'R Us announced today that they were dropping the Gamecube console price down to $99. Even though Nintendo is probably losing money now on the GameCube, this is the move that Nintendo may be hoping will close the little gap between Xbox and GameCube in worldwide sales, and help it gain a solid lead over Microsoft in the coming months." A Reuters story mentions further indications that an official announcement is on its way, and all on Nintendo's 114th birthday, too.

Comments

Depends what $99 includes

[jvmatthe]

If it's $99 for a Cube and nothing else, then this is not a terribly significant event. Before it was $149 for a Cube and a game (Zelda, e.g.) or $149 for a Cube and GameBoy Player (GBP). Each of those extra items is roughly $50 retail, so the Cube itself could have been thought of as being $99 for a while. Regardless, they can now advertise is as $99 and people may actually think that it's a new deal. In a sense, it is, since now they can pick the game to go with their new cube (instead of having to buy a specific one) but the net effect is still that the Cube cost $99.

Now, if in fact the $99 price still includes either a game or a GBP then this is a significant deal. Honestly, with the GBP the Cube becomes a great little system to have. I recently finished Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow entirely on the GBP and that was a GREAT experience. Other GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance games also benefit from the big screen format, although you may finally realize how awful some of that 8-bit sound was on your older games. Those older games are relatively cheap to get used, so you can get by inexpensively on those. Add in Animal Crossing and other great games on the Player's Choice list and then you're talking a good time. Heck, you can even play Soul Calibur II, if you want.

Sure, you won't be playing Halo 2 or the next Grand Theft Auto, but there is still some good gaming to be had on that cheap Cube.

Re:Depends what $99 includes

[Anonymous Coward]

"Honestly, with the GBP the Cube becomes a great little system to have."

Honestly, there are people who think it already is. :)

But really, I've had a Cube since launch. Even if I'd known that 2 years later I'd be able to get it for half price, there's no way I wouldn't have still bought it right then and there. I've played enough fun games on it in that time to make it worth what I paid for it, and being able to play the crossplatform games with a comfortable controller is good. Wavebird is the only wireless controller I've ever liked using, because it's shaped exactly like the official wired pad.

Talk about the PS2 though, and it's another story. I waited for it to get down to $200, and in the time that it took to get it down to that price from $400, I didn't miss out on any good games. Seriously, reading all the PS2 websites until the price dropped, I didn't miss anything worth owning at all. I like the system's set of games now, but in Sony's case it's like they had to cut the price before companies would make any good games for it or something.

XBox, I don't have one. Microsoft can sell them at $50 like PSOne and I still wouldn't have one, because there are no fun games on it, unlike PSOne. What the heck is the hold up? Microsoft normally chases after markets like a hooker trying to meet quota, but apparently "people who like fun games" isn't a market they want, only "people who like the same played-out robot games and bloody shooter games you can get for your PC". Those games must be easy or cheap to make or something, because it would be depressing that people would want to stick to making those dark kinds of games for so long on the PC, then would want to keep doing it on a console system.

OOPS, Carmack reads this site sometimes, doesn't he? :)

Okay, so it's not #1...

[NanoGator]

... doesn't mean it wasn't successful. How much cash did Nintendo rake in?

Now I'd be worried if Nintendo was shaking up its executives...

Nothing really

[Daetrin]

Microsoft can drop the XBox's price if they're willing to take even more losses, and they probably will. However once you get below $100 you've crossed a certain psychological threshold. Even if the price difference between an Xbox and a Gamecube is no greater than before once Microsoft makes it's own cut, the Gamecube will probably be perceived as a better deal now that it only has two digits in its price (and even though in many places taxes will push it back above $100, it's the sticker price that counts, which is why you always see things for $X.99 of course.)

I don't know if that perceived value will make up completly for the deficiencies, real or imagined, of the Gamecube vs. the Xbox, but it will certainly help.

Re:Death Knell

[BTWR]

isn't lowering a console's price point below $100 a death knell?

While Dreamcast's $50 price was bad publicity, the Genesis, NES and SNES all went for below $100 during the middle part of their generations.

Remember:

[Gothic_Walrus]

The real profits are made by the software, not the hardware. Even if Nintendo is now losing money on the GCs (not bloody likely), they'll still be selling plenty of games to keep the GC owners entertained. Since Nintendo still has some A-List titles to release (such as Mario Kart and Mario Golf), they won't be suffering anytime soon.

Re:OK, but...

[PainKilleR-CE]

Microsoft seems to be competing more with PS2 then with Gamecube.

How is Microsoft competing more with PS2 than with GameCube when the XBox sales are much closer to the GameCube's sales than to the PS2's sales?

The simple fact is that Microsoft is #3 worldwide, and if Nintendo can get a decent increase in sales in the US, Microsoft will be #3 here, as well. Microsoft set their system up to compete with the PS2 (DVD playback, online capability, etc), but that's not what they are currently doing.

Re:question

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah... they were $60, $70 and sometimes $80 a piece.

Really I wish this mentality would die. Prices aren't increasing, during the last wave, Sony successfully drove down the pricing model with no indication of it rising (in the console model).

Re:question

[Metal_Demon]

I remember when gas use to cost 75cents a gallon. Videogames are actually getting cheaper when you think about it. As inflation goes up videogame prices don't. Consoles are deffinately cheaper. Finally now with this price drop I will have all 3 consoles. Not that I don't have too many games to play right now already.