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Sales Data Indicates GameCube Underperforming
MikeT writes "FileFront is reporting that Nintendo's GameCube underperformed in 2004 and this holiday season by almost half! While Nintendo's spokespeople remain mum, the reporter from FileFront claims that Nintendo's beloved console's numbers are dwindling, quoting industry professionals and reputed sales figures. Clip: "The early word hardly looks promising. Market information group NPD Funworld put GameCube console sales at 350,000 for November 2004, far behind Xbox's 708,000 and PS2's 694,000."" We ran a related story recently discussing the possibility of UK retailers dumping the system.
PS2 had GTA: SA and XBox had Halo2 during that time period. GameCube had Metroid Prime 2, but wasn't nearly a big of draw to buy a machine. GameCube numbers should pick up probably with Resident Evil 4, new Zelda and Pokemon games.
Where were the Gamecube's must-have titles this Christmas? Metroid Prime 2 was pretty much the only even vaguely significant name. The PS2 had San Andreas and it's usual hordes of 3rd-party games, the X-Box had Halo 2 and KOTOR 2. The Gamecube had a sequel to a game whose first incarnation, despite critical praise, had received distinctly divided opinion from customers. With fewer and fewer third party and cross-platform titles, epic waits between increasingly formulaic first-party titles (cf. Mario Sunshine and Mario Kart Double Dash) and still no online services worth mentioning, you have to wonder whether Nintendo actually want to stay competative in the "desktop" console market.
Yes, Nintendo is still profitable for the moment, but I'm starting to doubt whether they really have the drive they'll need to stay that way, in a world of ever-increasing development costs and customer expectations.
Oh well, I guess I'm about to lose yet more karma to the usual slashdot Nintendo-fanboy horde. Let them go on modding down the truth until the day the facts finally hit home.
I don't think this is really a big surprise, For quite some time Nintendo has been the Apple of the games industry; high quality products that typically only sell to a niche fanbase.
Both Apple and Nintendo have wildly sucessful portable units, both typically release their products in a variety of colors, both remain profitable, both won't be going away any time soon.
I believe that the gamecube sales has suffered from the fact that no modchips has been available. Now that the http://www.ps2nfo.com/viper.html has arrived, the sales will increase significantly.
There's always the talk of that next big game that will help sell cubes. These games never have a meaningful impact on sales. Face it the cube is dead. Hopefully nintendo can turn it around with revolution, but as for this generation they'll end up number 3.
....In other news, scientists have found that the air we breathe contains oxygen.
In addition to the already stated points about how there wasn't really anything to buy for the GameCube this Christmas aside from Metroid Prime 2 (which had a very hard time against the overwhelming hype over GTA:SA and Halo 2), you can really blame the retailers. They've long since relegated the GameCube to 3rd place, and they'll only market it as an afterthought.
Next time you see an ad on TV for Walmart's electronics section, note what logos you see in the background. It's always the Xbox and the PS2. Walk into an EB or a GameStop, and the GameCube section is always in the back (not really a smart move from a merchandising perspective). Up until recently, the GameCube was always neck-and-neck with the Xbox, but just like how the media loves to see a hero fall, the game retailer executives love to see a new player take an old one down. They were happy to see Sega fall, and they helped.
What's interesting is that the GameCube's underwhelming performance is contributing more to the "Nintendo is doomed!" naysayers, and yet the hot holiday item this year was the Nintendo DS...
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Unless I see a /. article talking about one of the following:
the imminent demise of Nintendo
the imminent demise of the home PC
Michael's interesting-enough news stories ruined by adding one line of unnecessary commentary at the end which basically insults anyone who thinks otherwise.
Gamecube didn't have as good of a holiday season as the PS2 and the XBOX. OMG OMG OMG, Nintendo is teh D3@D!
2003 was the christmas you couldn't find a GameCube on shelves. The GC is still the worldwide #2, and lets face it, the XBOX will not have another Halo 2 to sell systems anytime soon.
Plus Nintendo is not just a profitable console maker, it is the MOST profitable.
I haven't played my cube in awhile. Since November 23. The day WoW came out...
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
If the Gamecube would at least have added DVD capability like the PS2 and XBox, it would have been more on-par with them in terms of capability.
With the exception of their Gameboy line, Nintendo's products are always half-assed, missing a key "something" that would add a decent piece of functionality.
Ever since the NES/SNES they've relied more on their name to sell games, rather than their innovation. A key example of this is how most of their games squeeze the last bit of life from their franchises, instead of trying to develop additional ones.
Heck, I was in BestBuy last week, and I'll be damned if 90% of the games on sale for GBA were simply NES games re-released... with the same graphics!
Nintendo's been sitting on its laurels for too long in the console gaming market and they're clearly falling behind because of it.
Beny"I'm a humble person really,
I'm actually much greater than I think I am"
Having already bought my Gamecube during release week, and seeing how it still runs just fine, thanks (connected to the set of Donkey Konga bongos I got for Christmas), I haven't bought another in years.
Unlike certain other machines. Lousy Nintendo! How do they expect to carry on selling them at this rate? The least they could do is offer me another colour to collect, like they do with the SP every few months.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Good point on the DVD. The DVD capability also made the Xbox and PS2 have a little more value in that they could be used to play movies.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I can see why. While I have around 15 games for the system, I haven't seen one in a loooong time that I wanted to buy. I hated metroid prime so I didn't go for metroid prime 2. I'm still playing burnout 2 (god I hate EA for not releasing v3)... which is pretty much the only game I play now. The only game that I am waiting for is the next zelda. Then I think I'm done with the system. There just aren't enough good games.
I grabbed the DS for christmas though. XY XX is a great game. Very fun to play in short bursts, which is what the DS is good for. Still haven't seen anyone else with a DS though.
And then there is the fact that those who do will just pirate the games, so Nintendo will not be making any money off of them.
I've got to agree with the folks saying that there just aren't compelling reasons to buy the GCN, I have one and it's been slim pickings for games that ineterst me, my other consoles and PC have way more pull this year. This Christmas (and the months leading up to it)I bought software for my Xbox, PS2, PC, GBA and bought three DS's for me and the family (as soon as I got the first one the wife and kid wanted one)but my Gamecube remained sadly neglected. Multi platform titles I normally pick up the Xbox version, PS2 has great standout titles on its plaform that justify purchase, my PC has the MMORPGs there just isn't enough stuff on the cube that compels me to buy software for it. When Zelda hits I'll get it, I took a stab at an RPG on the cube, Tales of Symphonia, but was dissapointed, found more fun stuff on the PS2 and Xbox again. The only thing gaceing my Game cube has been GBA games through the adaptor when I'm home and want to see stuff on a big screen. besides that my GCN hasn't seen much love at all.
I'm not surprised.
When you buy a gamecube, you get a great little gaming system for a very affordable price from a long time player in the games market.
The problem with that is, when you buy a PS2 or Xbox, you also get a DVD player, and have the option of modifying the xbox to become so much more.
Can a gamecube:
- play movies over the network
- play your (legal) mp3 collection on your home stereo
- use it as a file server
- play MAME
- surf the web
- IRC
- and of course, play DVD's
For me there is no contest for functionality.
The major thing that the GameCube has going for it though is tons of great games for kids.
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I don't know what the deal is, but Nintendo needs to get their fucking act together with the GCN.
Look back at the SNES days: a huge number of games spanning every genre. Awesome first and third party support. Far, far fewer instances of Nintendo's franchise whoring. The SNES has, in my opinion, the best game lineup any console's ever had. Even today, I find myself spending more time with SNES9x than I do my GCN.
What the hell has Nintendo done? Is there a cultural difference at the company? Do developers have the perception that everything on the GCN needs to be aimed at the 10-and-under crowd?
Nintendo's got the hardware - the Gamecube is so sleek and well-made that it makes the PS2 and Xbox sseem downright amateurish in comparison. Their stance on online support is asinine. Yes, having a bunch of friends over to play is more fun than online multiplayer, but for many of us that don't have gamer friends, live far away from our gamer friends, or aren't 8 years old, having our friends over after school to play Pokemon, at the very least online multiplayer would let us play)!
The fact that the GCN's sales are poor shouldn't suprise anyone. In this generation of the consoles wars, Nintendo strutted out with the most awesome equipment there was, and then promptly impaled themselves on their own sword.
I think it's too late for the GCN. Let's hope Nintendo stops catering to the Pokemon demographic with the Revolution, and goes back to their old SNES days.
Are these region-free DVD's common? Let me know. I spent some time looking in stores, and gave up. If they have to be mail ordered from some obscure place, add the $10 shipping to the cost.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I really don't think that Nintendo has much of a chance to create a next-gen console that will compete with the PS3 or XboX2.
It's time for Nintendo to follow Sega and release cross platform games and get out of the hardware business.
Zelda, Metroid, Mario, etc. will have a good home on the PC, XboX & PS2. Nintondo needs to focus on what it's good at.....Games.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
Nintendo had so many games on the N64 that would have been cash cows and a sure fire way to get their user base up. But they either were very late getting the GC versions out, or they more or less weren't very good. What a waste. I had many friends drooling for Perfect Dark, but got a PS2 many moons ago and forgot about all about Nintendo.
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Year to date console sales as of 12/26: ...looks like the GC isn't doing that bad. The Xbox on the otherhand...
Nintendo DS 1,286,074
GameBoy Advance SP 2,530,961
PlayStation 2 2,691,666
GameCube 696,839
PlayStation Portable 352,295
GameBoy Advance 198,025
Xbox 37,083
PSone 14,029
Swan Crystal 7,464
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
No one looks at sales numbers and says, "I think this bestselling console will be my favourite." No one goes, "Well, you know, I would've bought a Gamecube, but they're losing in the marketplace, you know? It's got all these games I lust after, but, it's just not the #1 console." You have already made your decision about which console(s) to like, based on factors which are actually important.
Just enjoy your fucking games, however you play them. Shut up about numbers. They don't fucking matter.
... this Christmas. I tried to hold out as long as I could. However, all my other friends had XBoxes with Halo 2 and Live. It's hard to compete against that. I was the only the one with a GameCube and one of few to have a PS2. I believe the Gamecube is a really good system but the problems lies with the fact that, as many have mentioned before me, the other systems have more features, more variety in games and more high-profile titles such as GTA:San Andreas and Halo 2 (which caught me). Sure, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes should have been a selling point but the marketing just wasn't there. I've seen countless ads for GTA and Halo 2 on the tv but only once did I see a Metroid ad. As for features:
PS2:
Backwards compatibility
DVD Playback
Audio CD Playback
With proper software, streaming video and music
Online Play
XBox:
DVD Playback
Audio CD Playback
Audio Storage (WMA files) and Playback
With hacking, emulators, media player, etc.
Online Play
Gamecube pretty much lacks all these features.
I'm sure plenty of people will respond with "I don't want a swiss army knife, I want a game machine."
What they don't understand is that CD audio/DVD functionality/Online capability is "More". Joe Sixpack likes "More". Mr. 6P goes to Best Buy to buy a console. He doesn't know much about any of them, except he wants to play videogames. He looks at the Gamecube. Plays games. He looks at the Xbox. It plays games too. And you can store your music on it. And you can play DVDs (with optional remote, natch). And you can play online (with Xbox Live subscription).
In other words "More". "More" is good. "More" is worth an extra $50 to a lot of people.
Until Nintendo wakes up and realizes that their NES/SNES model is no longer working, and that people do indeed want "More", they're going to play second fiddle to those corporations that realize a device that only plays games isn't going to cut it any longer with the unwashed masses.
Which will die first, Nintendo or BSD?
You want N64 games, you want a DS rather than a cube...
I love Nintendo. From the SNES to the N64 to the Gamecube, not to mention the Gameboy series, I've never really found a need to look toward other consoles for my enjoyment (well, except dancing.* Damn you, DDR!)
For all that, I have many reasons to scoff at them. Someone commented once, long ago, that it looked like they had very different companies running the Gamecube and the Game boy divisions.
Here we have the Game Boy. People wanted it slimmer. Alrighty, here's a Game Boy Pocket. People want color. Game Boy Colors are now for sale! And when they came out with the Game Boy Advance, everyone was drooling and patting them on the back and giving them 'at a boys'... except for one thing: "I can't play in the dark!"
Boom, Game Boy Advance SP. It seems that the Game Boy side listens, and listens well.
The Gamecube side doesn't seem to hear much. Someone earlier in this thread posted the numbers in Japan, where the XBox doesn't hold a candle to the Gamecube. Hell, the Dreamcast was selling better. It seems that they are doing all they can to appeal to the Japanese consumers with inventive, quirky games (Monkey Ball (yes, third party,) Donkey Konga,) while ignoring the fact that Japan and America are two very different markets.
Don't get me wrong; I love Mario. I can't wait for the next Zelda (you're going to see a huge sales jump when that comes out.) I just picked up Pokemon Colosseum. But when you look at American gamers as a whole, they are into the more 'mature' games- Grand Theft Auto, Halo, etc. Nintendo, while not a kiddie console by any means, still has most of it's appeal to the younger generation.
Where's another Eternal Darkness? I recently picked that up, and have played through it once. If that had been a 3rd generation game, I don't think anything could have trumped it. The controls, the story, the entire thing is awesome. It only lacked in the graphics department (flat textures, bumpy character models.) If it had come out later, nothing would have rivaled it.
One of my other things about Nintendo is that they should be leading any kind of gaming revolution (pun intended.) They have their big fat cash cow, the Game Boy, so they should be able to pump some money into new ideas, and be able to take the financial hit if it happens. But they're being a bit too careful.
Of course, I still hold the opinion that the Gamecube is a throw-away product. It was meant to try and make up for the tragedies of the N64, while still being careful. Even if they don't sell the most, they are still making a large wad of cash, because they aren't shorting themselves on the console price. I think they're using the GCN to test the waters, see where edges are, and the info they gather now will be used to make the Revolution trump everything when it comes out.
*Yes, I know there's that new dance game for the Gamecube, but the song list looks like a Billboard Top 40. It looks for shit. I want my quirky Japanese songs, dammit!
... and didn't recover in time to catch the rush, in my opinion. They had a wicked cool advertising campaign that was designed to help crack the perception that the GC was just for kids (remember the ones that compare Nintendo to crack?), and it wasn't until later that they tacked on a few ads describing the games. Meanwhile Sony had those "vacation's over, Game_X, your performance has made you a Greatest Hit" and MS blitzed us with Halo 2 and Fable ads.
The lesson here may be that if you want to attract a gamer crowd, branding the system is a complete waste of time - what you want to do is convince players that your system has the most and best games. I thought those Nintendo ads were cool, but honestly, to this day I don't think I can name 5 games that are GC-only off the top of my head. Coincidently, I don't feel a pressing need to get a GC.
Another lesson may be that it doesn't matter whether you try to sell quality or quantity. MS did well focusing on just a couple games. The actual quality of the games themselves is debatable *cough*fable*cough*, but the ad campaign sure did let the world know they were big and they were on the X-Box. Meanwhile Sony went the other way and bragged about quantity, and they did fine, too. (Although, I suspect that MS's numbers are inflated by the fact that the market is already so saturated with PS2's. Probably most X-Box sales were to PS2 owners who finally considered the system mature enough to invest in (like myself). I can't prove this though.)
Gamers have always been saying focus on the games, but maybe these numbers will convince the people that make the decisions. With luck it may spur Nintendo to action and convince them to get serious about making games (or about finding 3rd parties that will) instead of pretty coloured consoles and edgy ads. Seems to me like MS beat them to the punch and already figured that out...
It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys.
Nintendo is probably the only company that successfully makes games under existing franchises that do not diminish the games that came before.
Even when the sequel does not enhance the franchise signifigantly, it never diminishes it.
END COMMUNICATION
More like rumor and inneundo. Re-hash some analyst's emails. There's no info here about profitability, for one thing. Sure, Nintendo's numbers might not be as large as Microsoft's - but they aren't losing a bundle per unit either.
People have been saying the sky is falling for Nintendo for like, a decade. In return, Nintendo hasn't gotten tired of laughing all the way to the bank.
So far, they've got one Zelda game and one Mario game, and both are not really considered proper successors to their respective franchises!
I wanted so badly to have some good ol' classic Mario brought to the new console generation, but they blew it.
Oh well. I really hope Nintendo gets their shit together.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
It seems to me that the people who are interested in the GC for the most part already have a game cube. The thing is, nintendo used to be the sort of defacto standard for a gaming system. If someone wanted to have a console, and didn't know much about console gaming, then they got a nintendo system. Now days it seems like it's the opposite.
The majority of the people I know are not hard-core gamers, but they generally still have 1 system. Most often it's either an X-Box or a PS2.
It seems to me that nintendo (at least with their consoles) is catering to the hard core gamer market now, with a few incredibly solid titles (zelda, paper mario, the Resident Evil series), that appeal mainly to the old school type of hard core gamer who is willing to buy a system for just a few good games, doesn't buy bad games, and cares more for solid gameplay than flashy graphics or buckets of blood.
The people in this group generally will already have a game cube, and since the units don't have a habbit of breaking *cough*PS2*cough* I really wouldn't be suprised to see the sales of the game cube to continue to decline.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Console hardware sales data is very helpful to game developers. It's the very reason why the PS2 has more games developed for it than the XB or GC.
games.slashdot.org: Clueless editors posting non-stories submitted by yammering teenage fanboy idiots. With the added bonus of breezily missing the point of the source article in most cases.
Completely FACTUALLY FUCKING INACCURATE or just plain worthless stories consistently drift off the front page without ever being corrected. Because it's just games, and accurate reporting doesn't matter, right?
Why do they continue with this farce at all when it's plainly obvious to anyone with the faintest interest in games that they can't be bothered to do it properly?
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I think Nintendo didn't push the cube this xmas on purpose. I think what they really wanted to do is push the DS. If they can effectively cut off the PSP from making inroads into the portable market, then Nintendo will have secured their profits for many years to come. Ofcourse, this is only one man's theory.
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No, but companies go, "I think this bestselling console will be the one we develop for", and that leads to more games being released for that one, and the others getting left out.
.Net, x86, Itanium, etc. We could debate the techinical merits of each all day, but the market tends to develop for the one with the biggest marketshare.
Same goes for any platform that software runs on, really - Linux, Windows, Java,
I do love Nintendo, but I will be selling my Gamecube to a friend - all the games I want are on GBA, not GC.
His plans for the machine? A couple of used games and every emulator he can get his grubby mitts on. Basically, MS is not going to see a dime from him, other than for the (again, discounted) machine. Contrast to his buying habits of usually getting GC titles at launch and mine of getting (T-RPGs and Katamari Damashii) PS2 games.
My household ending up buying three GC titles this Christmas season - Paper Mario, Metroid Prime 2, and Naruto 3 (imported). We're looking at importing Donkey Konga 1+2 and buying Pikmin 2. That's, of course, not to mention numerous GBA games. My point being, I would like to see software sales for both machines as well as hardware and worldwide sales. I believe I saw sales in the 300s recently for the Xbox in Japan.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
I would like to point out, that these are only US sales numbers. In Japan, the Game Cube is #2, and the XBox is out of the #1 spot by a ratio of 50 to 1.
The ______ Agenda
The people who do say these things are also Microsoft's customer base. I don't think it's a coincidence.
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
Except for the fact that as a whole, americans do exactly that. They think "hey, dave john and phil all have playstations, I should get a playstation too" and "if xbox is number one, it should be the best, right?".
If that weren't so, then you wouldn't see the #1 in every market advertising that fact: "America's favourite game show", "Australia's best selling car" etc etc.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Fanboy Billy loves his Gamecube, sees these numbers, and thinks they're a personal attack on him. He starts feeling the need to defend his taste in games by arguing about sales numbers. "Oh, Nintendo is plenty profitable!", they'll cry. "These are just the US sales numbers!" And some of the more jealous types will start attacking other consoles to feel better. "At least Nintendo doesn't take a loss on hardware!" they'll cry.
EXCEPT NONE OF THESE ARGUMENTS MATTER IN THE SLIGHTEST. You could have a more productive argument about the XBox being big than about the relative sales numbers of various consoles. At least you have to look at the damn thing in your living room.
Perception is everything, have a look at what happened to the Dreamcast and you'll see a lot of parallels in the Gamecube.
Not a slashdot meme as such... it's not a soviet russia type thing.
You made the point quite eloquently in your post. It needs to be spread.
Most people think of Japanese games as Final Fantasy these days, which is ridiculous. Final Fantasy is certainly popular in Japan, just as it is here. There's nothing quite like the constant grind of "hit the button, get the reward." That's a mammalian thing more than a Japanese thing.
When the Americans buy GTA, though, the Japanese buy something weird like Pikmin or Katamari Damacy or that game where you're a mosquito trying to suck blood from gigantic humans.
Nintendo still makes Japanese games in an era in which Americans are finally making their own. The cultural gap is widening.
So, the meme. Every time anyone says to us anywhere "Nintendo only produces kiddy games" what we need to respond with is "Nintendo isn't kiddy, it's kawaii."
Even those of you reading this who don't like Nintendo's approach ought to understand the fairness of this. Nintendo games are made for Japanese adults as well as children. Japanese adults are strange to us. That's all.
Sony is one of the DVD-Rom license patent royalty holders. By stamping DVD on the GameCube, Nintendo would have to fork over (an you can correct me on this) about $25 for a license agreement, per GameCube. Microsoft was clever in this, and didn't say that the Xbox could play DVD's. But they sold a remote control that "Enabled" this feature. This way they didn't end up paying the competitor. But Microsoft had a second agenda in the game wars, they wanted to also become major name brand tied further into the home than just the PC alone. Nintendo didn't have the grand media center plans, and didn't want to pad Sony's deep pockets. Nintendo made the right choice.
Nintendo also targeted the GameCube to a very young audience. This meant that these extra features would be valueless. It's my opinion that only a mature audience would want a DVD player, MP3 player, or broadband network connection.
While their hardware sales are slumping, I truly hope Nintendo can focus on the area that they really shine, and that is in software. They fell behind when users demanded CD-Rom's instead of carts. Now DVD-Rom's are necessary (for the most part) to hold game titles, again Nintendo is off-guard and failing to meet the customers' needs. They are especially poor at judging the future of gamers needs and bringing those design requirements in their products. But their games are fantastic! And should Nintendo decide to port the titles to PlayStation or Xbox, they might stand to make a fortune.
I agree, there are very good comparisons to be made with the Dreamcast. Both are excellent systems with stunning games that I really enjoy playing, and both were absolute bargains. They are the two consoles with the best quality video signals, too, for what it's worth.
But that wasn't what you meant, was it?
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"