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UK Retailers Dumping Gamecube?

Posted by Zonk on from the not-very-sporting-now-is-it? dept.

GameCube Europe is carrying a story stating that major United Kingdom retailers are dropping the Gamecube from their stock. From the article: Argos [has] reduced the GameCube from the RRP of £79.99 to only £39.99 and have also reduced the cost of games and accessories by a drastic amount.

4 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. A pity by sycomonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would be really sad if what caused the failure of Nintendo was not them loosing money, or them not having fans, but companies being short sighted enough to drop support for Nintendo simply because it's not selling as well as Xbox and PS2 stuff. As it is Nintendo could live enitrely on it's fanbase for an indefinate period of time, but if you can't walk into a store and buy the games, then it doesn't matter how many much money you're making. If it ever comes to those dark times, hopefully Nintendo will have the forsight to just open up an online store, or start their own chain of Nintendo stores. Or both.

    --
    --The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. --Tycho Brahe (Penny Arcade)
  2. PAL neglection by dutt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Since Nintendo has neglected the PAL market by not releasing close to the amount of titles for the gamecube, this doesn't really come as a big surprise.

    What would surprise me though, is if Nintendo just would let this pass without action.

  3. Why did this even get posted? by Khuffie · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I mean seriously. A single retailer reduces the price on a console, and suddenly all UK retailers are somehow magically thinking of dropping the GameCube? Perhaps the single retailer has an overstock of GameCubes. Perhaps they didn't sell them as many GameCubes as competing retailers. Perhaps, you know, this is a limited time offer in an effort to spark sales.

    Go to the site's gamecube listing. "Offer ends 21st January 2005. " Last thing you do is trust anything from GameCube Europe. They're just as bad as Nintendo Now.

  4. Re:Even so, by badasscat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Move along, nothing to see in this article. I mean, did anybody actually read it? It starts off like this:

    A while ago Argos reduced the price of the GameCube console because they wished to get rid of their stock. After an incredible increase in sales they decided to carry on stocking it, but seem as if they wish to get rid of it now.

    Let's all ponder that for a minute. "A while ago" Argos "wished" to get rid of their stock, and now they "wish" to get rid of it again. The trouble is, people just keep buying the stupid things! Poor Argos, their wish just never comes true! Those pesky customers just will not stop giving them their money.

    Seriously, though, two points:

    1. This is not new. The article itself says Argos first did this "a while ago", meaning (since this author can't seem to remember exactly) in 2003.

    2. The rest of this article is nothing but speculation. "it is worrying that retailers are seemingly giving up on the GameCube" is an opinion based on an assumption based on nothing. The article itself says that prices were reduced previously and yet GameCubes are still on sale - why not assume this is simply a sales-generating tactic that's now been used repeatedly? Do stores never have loss-leader sales in the UK? (Rhetorical question - they obviously do, because Argos did it before with the GameCube.)

    Nintendo's in a lot better shape than people seem to think they are. Just read their financial reports and look at the worldwide sales data (it's out there, though Europe's the toughest to come by - NPD and MediaCreate reports are pretty easily obtainable from various sources, though). They're profitable and they've got the #2 home console and #1, #2 and #3 handhelds in terms of current worldwide sales.