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Nintendo Learns from Mistakes with GameCube

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the a-company-that-learns-is-no-company-at-all dept.

kukyfrope writes "Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's Executive VP of Sales and Marketing, talks about what went wrong with GameCube and how Nintendo will not make the same mistakes when launching Wii. Reggie admits that the initial software lineup for the GameCube was simply not 'diverse and strong enough from a first and third-party perspective,' and by Nintendo's showing at E3 2006, the Wii will launch with a wide variety of games for may types of gamers."

7 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. I think I read this article already.... by ASimPerson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except it was called "Nintendo learns from mistakes with N64".

    Seriously though...I've seen a few articles like this for the Wii, but I can almost remember them saying nearly the same things about how the learned from mistkes with the N64 and promised for 3rd party support for the 'Cube.

    Hopefully, it work this time.

    --
    In 3010, the potatoes triumphed
    1. Re:I think I read this article already.... by barawn · · Score: 5, Informative
      Seriously though...I've seen a few articles like this for the Wii, but I can almost remember them saying nearly the same things about how the learned from mistkes with the N64 and promised for 3rd party support for the 'Cube.

      Note what he's saying, though: it's not just 3rd party support (honestly, I couldn't care less about where the game comes from) this time. Here he's saying "yeah, the launch titles weren't diverse enough - period."

      That's a big deal. And actually, I personally think that the problem with the N64 was 3rd party support, and the problem with the GameCube was first-party support at launch. The Nintendo launch titles for the GameCube were.. well.. less than stellar. Note here that I'm going to glom first and second party together, as I'm never sure which ones are first or second.

      Here's Nintendo's at launch titles for the GameCube:
      • Luigi's Mansion
      • Wave Race
      • Rogue Squadron


      Even afterwards, it, uh, wasn't that much better. Soon-after-launch titles:
      • SSB:M
      • Pikmin


      Uh. Yeah. That's... not that stellar. Not even that many, either. It's not that they were bad games. It's just that they were... well, few. And not Mario. Or Zelda. Instead, Wind Waker showed up a year later. Mario, nearly a year later as well. Both felt like too little, too late.

      There's still plenty of time for Nintendo to screw up, mind you, but delaying Twilight Princess to the Wii launch (which virtually everyone thought that was what they were doing when they announced the delay) is actually quite smart. If they can get a good fraction of the titles at E3 out the door by launch, they're going to have a much, much more successful launch than the GameCube.
    2. Re:I think I read this article already.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What a lot of people miss is that Nintendo has been learning from their mistakes since the N64. Basically, the N64's problems were:

      1) No/Bad third party support
      2) Difficult development enviroment
      3) Expensive, small capacity, storage format
      4) Huge waits between game releases

      The Gamecube's problems were"

      1) No exclusive third party support
      2) moderate capacity storage format
      3) moderate waits between game releases

      The Wii seems to be (once again) a small step towards fixing these problems; the system appears to be getting a lot of exclusive support from third parties (I think there are only a couple of multi-platform games), DVD is a perfectly reasonable storage format, and the lower cost development environment (as well as the virtual console) should limit the wait times between game releases.

    3. Re:I think I read this article already.... by srvivn21 · · Score: 5, Funny
      As for Rouge Sqaudron, it was definitely a Rouge.

      Rouge Squadron? Is that the one where you apply make-up in a group?
  2. Re:Wow by twistedsymphony · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They did A LOT of things right actually, just from a hardware standpoint
    - Excellent Price point
    - 1st party wireless controllers (as usual ahead of it's time)
    - choice of colors
    - durable as hell, can easily take more of a beating then the other consoles of that generation
    - Widely available 480p video modes in games... 2nd only to the Xbox, and way more coverage then the PS2 had
    - easily the most comfortable controllers of last generation
    - from what I hear a fantastic development environment, almost Xbox 1 level graphics from apparently "inferior" hardware

    Despite the fact that most of the good games are 1st party, it still remains the best "party" system on any console. with the exception of say Halo, or DOA on the Xbox 1 you wont find as many quality 4 player party games on any other console...

    --
    Collector's Edition
  3. PlayStation 360, PlayCube, Mario on Xbox... by tepples · · Score: 5, Funny

    "GameCube" says what it is -- it's a cube that plays games. Pretty straightforward. Good name.

    And also incredibly generic and tough to defend as a trademark, especially when your closest competitor uses "box" (meaning an approximate cuboid) in the name of its product. People outside the business find it hard to keep the PS2 generation consoles' names straight.

    "Wii" -- what the fuck is that?

    And what is a "PS2"? Isn't that pronounced like piss too?

  4. *ahem* Excuse me, Nintendo don't make mistakes by bunbuntheminilop · · Score: 5, Informative

    They made $4.5 billion profit last year.