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."

Comments

Alledgedly forthcoming zelda bundle.

[Captain Rotundo]

I e-mailed Nintendo's public relations office about this release and was told:

Currently we are considering several premium offers for Nintendo GameCube for the holiday season, and a Zelda bundle is among them. But no decisions have been made yet.

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.

Re:Alledgedly forthcoming zelda bundle.

[damiangerous]

And of course, seven minutes after this story hit the Zelda bundle became official.

my 2 cents

[schapman]

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.

Guess what? You can get the game in other ways!

[Gothic_Walrus]

First off: the bundle is more or less a certainty at this point - there's been enough proof to support it (box art, advertisements, etc.) That said...

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...

Re:Market share

[PainKilleR-CE]

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.

PPC for $99

[SmashPot]

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.

From a UK shop floor

[GreatDrok]

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.