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UK Retailers Dumping Gamecube?
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.
"Just because the system isn't selling as well as the PS2 or XBox does not mean that Nintendo is losing money. With the already installed user base, Nintendo can make profits from sales of the games they release. So, your "equation" is wrong."
It's also worth noting that we're talking about 1 region here, not the entire world. As I recall, XBOX wasn't doing so well in Japan.
"Derp de derp."
"The best thing Nintendo could do, in my eyes, anyways, is stick to making hardware (because they do a damned fine job of that), license their stable of franchises out to 3rd parties (I mean, just look what Retro managed with Metroid Prime - those fucktards at Nintendo let their most adult-oriented franchise just rot for years and years, cranking out the odd Super Metroid clone on the GBA, and then Retro takes it off their hands and makes one of the best consoles games ever), and try to build a functional platform behind their console; something like Xbox Live."
Ouch. Talk about recipe for disaster.
A.) Nintendo makes its own hardware because it can afford to with all the first party titles it sells. Metroid Prime is cool and all, but it's hardly an indication that 3rd parties could, in general, carry Miyamoto's torch. So they'd lose money and there's a weaker guarantee of quality.
B.) XBOX live isn't making Microsoft any real money, nor is Sony's on-line service. If Nintendo provided one, they'd be lucky to get half a million subscribers. Lots of people want on-line pay, few actually want to pay $x per month for it.
C.) It'd be nice for Nintendo to get more 3rd party support. But there is a point of diminishing returns. I'll never forget when the PS1 first released. It had a TON of games on the shelves. Nearly all of them were CRAP. I was surprised that Sony hadn't created another 'Atari' here by flooding the market with a bunch of me-too -look-at-me-because-Im-3D games. I'm not saying it'd hurt Nintendo to have more 3rd party games, but if Sony and Nintendo got into "let's see how much we can cram the shelves" war, there'd be a serious risk of people just not caring anymore. (Just like what happened with the Atari 2600)
Nintendo's not in its death throes by any stretch of the imagination. But I do agree with you that they need to work harder to broaden their appeal. I just wanted you to know that, I'm not trying to shoot down your entire point. Just saying I don't agree with your plan.
"Derp de derp."