GameCube Outsells PS2, Xbox After Price Cut

Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for their story that the GameCube outsold the PlayStation 2 by 20 per cent in the U.S. last week, as well as "racking up more than twice the sales of the Xbox - with a 145 per cent lead over Microsoft's console", following the GameCube price cut to $99 of a couple of weeks back. The piece suggests "we'd expect to see the console slip behind the PS2 in the rankings next week", but also argues that "...unless Microsoft reacts to the recent price-cuts, it could be outsold by the Cube this Christmas in the USA, as Nintendo rolls out one of its strongest ever ranges of first and third party titles."

Comments

Re:A short-term gain only

[PainKilleR-CE]

Sure, it's a short term gain, but the real question is how much is it going to taper off. No one really expects it to stay ahead of the PS2, except in short bursts as new 'must-have' titles come out, possibly. A 20% drop from the current rate is not a big deal, but puts them behind the PS2. On the other hand, is it really likely that GC sales will cut in half and then some before XMas? That's what it'll take for the XBox to come back (and it's unlikely that XBox sales will increase without GC sales decreasing).

As for $50 per game, that's probably one of the additional benefits of coming into the system later: there are plenty of low-priced games worth buying, whether new or used. Sure, people will want some of the newest games, but there are still plenty of top-notch games in the $20-30 range (and I have seen Eternal Darkness lower than that quite a bit lately, ~$12-16).

Right now, my PS2's getting most of the play because I recently picked up Amplitude. Before that, I hadn't played it much at all in a few months (and then mostly PS1 games). Of course, who really cares how many of the people now buying Cubes have PS2s? They're buying Cubes, it must mean they see something worthwhile, even if it's just a small number of titles and the price of the system. If they already have a PS2 and they're buying a Cube, there must be a reason for that purchase, because it's not like they don't already have a console (hell, I have a DC, PS2, XBox, and Cube, what does it really matter?).

At $99 each....

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

It might be a good time to figure out how to make a Beowulf Cluster of these...