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GameCube Sales Quadruple, Nintendo Debuts New Slogan
Thanks to GameSpot for their report that sales of Nintendo's GameCube have quadrupled, following the price cut to $99. The piece quotes an effusive GameStop spokesman as saying: "Our sales of Nintendo GameCube have increased more than fourfold. We are currently increasing our shipment requests for the system throughout the holidays." Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun-Times reports on the new Nintendo adverts, both TV and print, with the tagline "Who Are You?" - the print ads "...show the heads of Nintendo characters superimposed on famous images, including players in the rock band Kiss, a person straddling the now-demolished Berlin Wall and no less an icon than the Mona Lisa", and the massive $100 million ad spending will also feature "a 60-second cinema commercial... shot on location in Asia... [and featuring] more than 500 extras."
So am I the only one who is honestly not surprised by this? Gamecube is a really great system, with really great games, and people are obviously buying them in mass quantities now. To me, this shows that since PS2 hit the market first, and everyone hopped on that despite it's horrid launch and stuck with it, most of the gamecube sales to date have been from people like me who wanted the gamecube, not PS2. Now that Nintendo has slashed the price, people are going and buying it as a second system. Does anyone else smell the demise of the Xbox?
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Kidding!
I'm glad to hear their sales have jumped. Hopefully this nips the whole "Gamecube is dead" article blight in the bud, since I was getting sick of people claiming that, despite the excellent games.
skye
But regardless, Nintendo is very much in the black, as you seem to be implying that they are teetering towards the red. See this article for information on this. (Basically, they made 95 million in their first fiscal quarter of the year.) They may not be making the kind of money that was coming in during the heyday of the NES but Nintendo is not in dire straits.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
To me, Nintendo is marketing the fact that they're still Nintendo after all these years. People oftentimes are unhappy in the present, and the future is a scary proposition, so they generally take solace in the past. Look at all the 80's revival shows on VH1, the new Garbage Pail Kids cards, retrogaming, etc. People love being reminded of all the cool stuff about their youth (as opposed to the crappy things) and that, to me, is what Nintendo is selling. They're saying "Hi, we're Nintendo, and we still make games with Mario, Donkey Kong, the Princess, etc. Come buy a GameCube for $99 and remember what these games are like."
Plus to me the Nintendo ads have style. Xbox ads are always MTV music videos with James Earl Jones at the end. Nintendo's ads are like those pieces of art most people don't get. Besides, everyone talks about them and remembers them - and remembers Nintendo. Pretty effective ads if you ask me.
Then again Sega's consoles always had pretty cool ads....
Schnapple
If the sales numbers stay high for an extended period I believe Microsoft will be forced to drop the price of the Xbox. I told my brother about the price drop of the Cube and the next day he bought one. I know a few other people who may pick up a cube now also. The price drop, in combination with a good library of games and some great new upcoming games like Mario Kart Double Dash (drools in anticipation, Nov. 17 is to far away!) should help improve Nintendo's situation in North America.
Yes, it will last. Once a console or any other consumer electronics device drops its MSRP it will not go back up again. Since the technology is getting older and hence closer to obsolescence day by day, consumers are not willing pay a higher price for something that was cheaper yesterday. Are they doing anything to change their game strategy? I believe they are doing a bit by enabling LAN play in some of their upcoming games (like Mario Kart) which helps a little, but if they would have gone with full internet support their games would be more attractive to more people. Nintendo states that their is no money to be made with online gaming. The replayability factor of a game is increased tremendously via the internet. Replayability + positive word of mouth and reviews = increased sales = increased profits. That's how you make money with internet gaming and if they don't have an internet strategy for their next console they don't have a chance.
what you are talking about is price elasticity. it basically means that how much a product's demand is affected by a coeficcient of >/;+/-1 due to price increase or decrease. A product is price elastic if by raising or lowering the price you see a change in demand. how great that demand is of course how you determine the range of the elasiticity. FI, if I sell 100 gamecubes at 149us dollars, and then lower my price to 99 and sell 400, that is a massive price elasticity. by reducing price by 1/3, i increase sales drastically.
This does not often work in taxes and govt, becasue the revenue that is returned to the people is not always spent back into the govt. FI, the US tax cuts this time around went to paying down debt and in very secure, low yield securities, with no one selling and everyone holding because prices were so low that they had to go up. In a bear market, not only are prices low, but you buy stock at low price to reap a high reward later. So, in effect, in several years, yes, we might get more money from reduced taxes. However, this has nothing to do with tax revenue in the short run as a decrease in the cost of govt (taxes) did not increase spending one iota, and on top of that there was an increase in govt spending that decreaesd revenue to the point that the govt has taken to using future revenue (credit, defecit spending) in order to make up for the non-elastic outcome of lowering taxes. Don't worry, someone will have to raise taxes in the future to pay for lower taxes today.
Needless to say, lowering the price on a gamecube is a bit more simple than fiscal and monetary policy of billion-trillion dollar economies
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You know , I always get tired when people try to debate based on facts from this gord guy. What the hell does he know?
As far as I can tell from his site, he's nothing more than an oversized young adult whose life revolves around his video game store.
He hasn't demonstrated the ability to read a financial report; Where does he get off commenting on the manufacturing of multi billion dollar corporations? I can get lots of 'news' from the dorks down at my local EBgames as well, but I don't base any of my judgements from it.
They are selling more units worldwide than microsoft.
What do you want?
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
So with a game it was 149.99 now without a game it is 99.99 and a game costs 49.99. Wow, I saved a penny! Honestly it just shows that people look at the price and do not look at what you get for the price. I will admit, when I first heard about it, I was tempted to go out an buy one untill I realized that it wasn't as good of a deal as it sounds.
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"Most people just can't think for themselves..."
Yeah, and they often blurt out fanboyish opinions without ever giving other games a chance too.
All too often I see, say, the latest Rockman or Sonic title being criticised by these Zombie Gamers for being too "cute" or "kiddie", when they haven't even attempted to play or enjoy them. It's a sad state of affairs.
In the press conference where they announced the price cut, they also announced that they would be resuming production shortly.
There are still specific advantages in the Xbox over the Gamecube. Networked games, higher quality output (audio and video), DVD player, hard drive.
As the other poster mentioned, the DVD player is a $30 addition. Internet games is $50/year (GC network adapter is an additional cost and more games are coming that support network play, though not internet play atm). Higher quality output is another additional cost (I don't know what the A/V pack costs since I have a fairly old TV). The hard drive is it, and without any of the other additions functions as an extremely large memory card and storage for music files (which I use quite a bit on certain games).
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Not that I'm trying to be smarmy or anything.... No, you are just daydreaming and you know it.
Nintendo is doing very well now, the gamecube is the one that is not going so good, developers are beginning to abandon it and they are not even building them anymore, of course the sales have quadrupled, they are practically giving them away.
The PSP is about to be released next year, Nintendo is a big company but not as big as sony or MS if the PSP beats their GBA and its succesor they ARE going to be in trouble and they know it.
if they actually end up losing the console war, there future may be pretty bleak.
The headline of the future probably is:
Sony continues leading the way, PSP sales through the rough XBOX2 gets delayed MS announces the XBP, the Gamesphere bundled with Mario 2004 and the GBA ultra drops price to $50 sales quadrupled.
Or maybe the next GBA will be really something and nintendo will end up beating all. Hey! who knows? is the future after all.
Go ahead MOD my day!
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Who knows the future? No one. But we know the past and the current. Nintendo hasn't had a money losing quarter in ages. Nintendo is debt free. Nintendo has $7,500,000,000 USD in cash.
Yes, this is called "building brand image". They are probably advertising the company, not the gamecube, because they have more products than just the gamecube.
actually there are no plans for big gamecube games next year
This is where you are just wrong.
Never mind for the moment that there is a BIG bunch of gamecube games still to be released before the end of the 2003, that the best bunch of games are always likely to be released at the end of the year to fit the holiday season, and that Nintendo's historically been tight-lipped until E3. So far, here are a few of the scheduled GC releases for 2004:
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
- Pikmin 2
- Pokemon Colosseum (rumored to contain a GC pokemon RPG)
- Wario Ware GC
- Tales of Symphonia
- Resident Evil 4
- Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes
- Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow
- Harvest Moon
And these are *just* the headliners that have been announced so far. Nintendo is sure to announce a bunch of stuff once E3 comes. Somehow I don't really see what your worry is, this seems like a pretty impressive tenative lineup to me.Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
the gamecube has dropped its price to 1/2 its real price and ITS NOT being produced anymore
It was a temporary stop in production. The same press conference that announced the price drop also announced that production was starting again soon.
This campaign ad is not for upcoming gamecube games, actually there are no plans for big gamecube games next year
You mentioned Metal Gear and Metroid. There's also:
Star Fox Armada (or Star Fox 2, or whatever they call it)
Zelda (another cell shaded game)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
3D Kirby game
Pikmin 2
Resident Evil 4
Wario Ware
Mario 128 (working title)
And the government is not propping it up either. Social security is propping up government spending
Social Security is propping up government spending, but because of that it's had to be propped up itself. Additionally, due in part to the way government likes to take money from Social Security to balance other portions of the budget, money that goes into Social Security today goes straight out to pay beneficiaries. This is why it can't support itself once the baby boomers begin to retire, or even any time when unemployment is high. The money I've been putting in for the last 5 years is spent, and the chance of it being there when it's my turn to collect is slim to none.
Nixon alone put over $900 million into Social Security to prop up the expansions he made to benefits, including a 10% increase in payout, plus a cost-of-living scale that increased based on the year you retire, rather than the year you collect (though that, by it's very nature, reduces the payout to individuals over the way most people would expect it to work).
-PainKilleR-[CE]