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GameCube - Doubles U.S Share, UK Status, Zelda Bundle
nakedxray writes "Yahoo posted a Nintendo press release earlier this morning claiming that the GameCube has almost doubled its marketshare in the U.S, rising from 19 percent to 37 percent. The $99 price point seems to be paying off. Now, how about those online games?" Nintendo are again lagging in UK sales, however, as "the Xbox is now outselling Nintendo's machine by over two to one", according to GI.biz, although a UK variant, including Mario Kart:Double Dash, of the allegedly forthcoming U.S. Zelda bundle may help revitalize Nintendo's hardware in that market. Update: 11/04 20:59 GMT by S : The U.S. GameCube Zelda bundle is no longer 'alleged', since it's due on Nov.17th for $99, and the Zelda disc is available separately "by [consumers] registering their Nintendo GameCube system and two... hot holiday titles... [or] by subscribing to or renewing their subscription to Nintendo Power magazine."
I think you can take this to mean that they probably will do the promotion, but can't say so since retailers would obviously be upset if you told potential customers to wait before purchasing. of course maybe not, either way I am waiting to see what happens before running out for a gamecube.
I have come to realize that consoles boil down to: PS2: the ultimate for RPGs and some sports/action. good for sitting at home alone and gaming XBox: Great for sports and action (and another other typical "North American" styled game. good for a night of drinking and gaming w/ friends Nintendo: Fun. Though I only buy nintendo products looking at 1st party games... and nintendo makes amazing games. Ive had more success w/ 3rd party for sony than any other company, and xbox has so far seemed one of the best for sports games.
Wouldnt you like to be a pepper too?
Supposedly, there are going to be two other ways to get the bonus disc besides getting the bundle. You can either subscribe to Nintendo Power (total cost: $20) or buy two of four games (Mario Party 5, Mario & Luigi, Mario Kart DD, and 1080 Avalanche) and register them online (total cost: $80 minimum, since M&L is a GBA title).
Maybe we won't need to shell out $100 for another Cube after all...
Goo goo g'joob.
Market share is the percentage of all items sold during a given time period, and has nothing to do with how many have sold overall (ie since the system was released), which would be user base.
In other words, if the stores sell 100 Cubes, 50 XBoxes, and 60 PS2s, it doesn't matter that last month they sold 25 Cubes, 60 XBoxes, and 75 PS2s, or that there are already 50 million PS2s out there. The market share of the Cube would be nearly 50% if everyone sold the same ratios above. If everyone went out today and bought a PS2, XBox, and GameCube, each would have 33.3% of the market for today.
-PainKilleR-[CE]
4mb of ram for the system??? It actually has 48 - I have no idea where you got 4. The PS2 has 32. So the GC has more than the PS2.
What a steal, a PowerPC for only $99. Hmmm, what could I do with 5 of these? a $300 Apache web cluster, and a $200 MySQL cluster......... seems pretty appealing to me.
Me gonna go write me open source software and grow long beard and smokum some weedus and ummmm hide from people
I recently started working part-time in a UK shop and have been steadily selling consoles for the last few weeks in the build up to Christmas. What I noticed is that when the price of the GCN dropped to 79 there was a flurry of sales but that appears to have dried up somewhat now. PS2 sales have been steady and strong, DVD playback is surprisingly still important to people, as is the wide choice of games including PS1 games (great for younger kids). Xbox is barely shifting despite currently being bundled with four games. I've sold 1 Xbox, 3 GCN and a lot of PS2s in five days of work.
I currently own a PS2 and GCN. Might get an Xbox but I doubt it as the two consoles and PC give me plenty of choice.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
Don't think of it as a mascot, think of it as a legacy mark. Face it, the Mario legacy has stood the test of time. The only one from another company that even compares is Sonic, they had to make good popular games to obtain that status as well. So far Sega has proven itself as a good 3rd party provider. They had some good consoles, but with the exception of GameGear they were never undoubtably the best on the market. (and that unfortunately failed anyways) They were the best on the market several times, but there were other systems close enough that they just cut each others throats. I'm thinking Jaguare vs. 3DO vs. Saturn. Then it was DreamCast vs. PlayStation and the "lets wait for the PS2".
I'll admit, they got the short end of the stick on that, but as a 3rd party developer they strengthen the other systems.
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How could they possibly skip the best game in the series?!?!?!?!?!? A Link to the Past was the finest Zelda game ever. They skipped right over the SNES. Anyone know why or have any ideas? I guess they could probably rerelease it on its own to make more money but why jump from Zelda II to Ocarina? (What about the awful Philips CDi versions too? Not that I want those attrocities to be rereleased.)
Ok, here's a list of all my Cube games (I love them all)
Animal Crossing - exclusive (Nintendo)
Beach Spikers - Exclusive (Sega)
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - Exclusive (Sega: platformer by Yuji Naka)
Burnout 2: Point of Impact
Capcom Vs. SNK 2 EO
Cubivore (known as Animal Leader in Japan)- Exclusive (Nintendo)
Def Jam Vendetta
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - Exclusive (Silicon Knights)
F-Zero GX - Exclusive (Sega, yes, you read that right.)
Ikaruga - Exclusive, but it was also released for DC and arcades, but in japan only. GC version is available in all regions of the world
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time & Master Quest - port of the N64 classic, along with the addon, "Master Quest", which contains revamped dungeons.
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Luigi's Mansion - Exclusive (launch title) (Nintendo) Short but fun.
Mario Party 4 - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Medal of Honor: Frontline
Metroid Prime - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
NBA Street Vol. 2
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
Pikmin - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc
Resident Evil (aka REmake) - remake of the original Resident Evil. This remake, with completely redone graphics, new enemies, among other things, was only released for GC. (capcom)
Resident Evil 0 - exclusive (capcom)
Resident Evil 2 - port of RE2
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - port of RE3
Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2 - Exclusive (launch title) (Factor 5)
Skies of Arcadia Legends - enhanced port of Sega's massive RPG for the Dreamcast
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - port of SA2 (Sega)
Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut - Port of SA, also contains all the Sonic Game Gear games as unlockables (Sega)
Sonic Mega Collection - collection of all the Sonic titles from the Sega Genesis (Sega)
Soul Calibur 2 - multiplatform, but Link is a character exclusive to the GC version. (Namco)
Super Mario Sunshine - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Super Monkey Ball - Exclusive (Sega)
Super Monkey Ball 2 - Exclusive (Sega)
Super Smash Brothers Melee - Exclusive (Nintendo)
Timesplitters 2
Viewtiful Joe - Exclusive (Capcom)
Hope that helps. Check out reviews for all of those games to see which ones you'd like. Personally, I'd recommend buying a cube after November 17th, and picking up Skies of Arcadia Legends, Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, and Viewtiful Joe. For $99, you get the Cube and the Zelda collection disk, containing The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Adventures of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a playable demo of Wind Waker, gameplay footage from Wind Waker, and a "The making of..." documentary on the Zelda series. Skies of Arcadia is being sold for ten dollars brand new at Best Buy, Eternal Darkness is being sold between 10 and 20 dollars brand new, Metroid Prime is a Players' Choice title, and therefore, costs only 30 dollars, and Viewtiful Joe retails for only $40. So, you get a new console, a documentary, a playable demo, a video demo, and eight AAA titles, for only $200. Enjoy!
Be sure to check out the game "Viewtiful Joe". You may want to rent it first if you're a serious PC gamer, as it's a (brilliant) semi-3d take on 2-d platformers, and you may not like that style if you're not used to it. It's incredibly good, but very difficult. I think it's the best game on the Cube, except possibly Wind Waker.
Metroid Prime is very good; if you played the original you'll particularly enjoy it.
I really like my Cube. I own all three consoles, so I don't care which one does best. Right now I have two favorite games: Voodoo Vince on the XBox, and Viewtiful Joe on the Cube. On the PC, I just ordered Silent Storm from gogamer.com; it's not out in the US yet, and I didn't want to wait. The demo was awesome! They may finally have bested Jagged Alliance 2.
The rest of the year has kinda sucked, but the holiday releases so far are GREAT!