GameCube nearing the end?

[Robert]

Source

GameCube sale slump hits Nintendo 

 

Falling console sales and fierce price competition have dented profits at Japanese games manufacturer Nintendo.

Demand for its GameCube consoles has dropped off in the US, while sales of handheld Game Boy Advance consoles weakened in Japan and North America.

 

Sales fell 14% to 70.6bn yen ($62m) in the three months to June, with pre-tax income down 41% to 21.3bn yen.

 

Nintendo is banking on the success of its next-generation console, to be unveiled next year.

 

Tough competition

 

Increased research and development spending on the "Revolution" console - which will compete with new Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 - ate into profits in the most recent trading period.

 

The leading manufacturer of handheld video gaming machines, famous for its Super Mario and Donkey Kong characters, had said early this year that profits would be affected by competition from Sony and Microsoft.

 

Sales of its GameCube and Game Boy Advance consoles were broadly unchanged on the previous quarter but were well down on the same period last year.

 

Nintendo sold 1.38 million of its portable DS console, launched at the end of last year.

 

However, it was forced to cut prices in both the US and Europe in the face of fierce competition.

 

Near the end

 

Nintendo said recently-launched games such as Nintendogs and Pokemon Emerald had performed strongly but admitted that its GameCube console had lost some of its desirability in the US.

 

"The big drop for GameCube games was in North America," Yoshihiro Mori, Nintendo's senior managing director, told Reuters.

 

"It looks like the product's life is nearing its end."

 

In light of its recent trading performance, Nintendo has reduced its forecast for full year sales by 4% to 500bn yen.

 

It has also lowered its estimate of operating profits for the year as whole by 22% to 90bn yen.

[solidius23]

this is no surprise to me. and really shouldnt be to nintendo they lost a lot of 3rd party support and the games are not there and then they delayed the new zelda they had to see it coming. meanwhile sony and microsoft still have very good 3rd party support and I know PS2 still has some steam left in it till next yr.

[oshisama]

All the people I know with a cube traded it in for a DS and some DS games. I still have my cube, I tried to trade it in to EBGames but they wouldn't take it cos they had too many in stock.

Edited October 7, 2005 by oshisama

[Prican25]

hehe, wasn't too long ago that i saw ads from ebgames and such almost giving away gamecubes with games for anyone that trades in a xbox or ps2.

 

the main thing that still hurting it is ppl don't see the bargin with it any more since xbox and ps2 are only $50 bucks more and offer more.

 

could careless for ds as it never caught my eyes to have one and seeing how gba gets more games then it, whats the point?

 

i hope for revolution's sake that it doesn't end up as virtual boy heh.

[Nusumenai]

This isn't really a shock, but it is a shame indeed.

 

I thought this GC would at least do as good as the N64.

 

 

 

I wish Nintendo would move into pure game development... Would be nice to play Metriod and Zelda games again.

[Lucandrake]

Nintendo's speed at releasing sequals is pretty slow >.>... but then again that keeps the games originality and your affection for it even longer. Meh, I just hope nintendo does something fast before gc ends up like virtual boy

[Shibathedog]

What do I blame? Nintendo's horrible censorship policies!!!

 

Having bad games on your console isnt going to lose you any sales, seriously, The top selling console (on average anyway) is PS2, which has the game everyone loves to mention as worst game ever Grand Theft Auto, among others.

 

Seriously nintendo, Just stop with this nonsense and come to realize women and children arent exactly the most common group of gamers.

 

And all the girls i know who play games play Halo and stuff like that anyway so wtf? (Cept for one who only plays Tetris and Crash Bandicoot)

[Wizard]

What do I blame? Nintendo's horrible censorship policies!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ha, wrong, it's because during the SNES era, Nin was very protective, since then, their rules have been more relaxed (If you missed BR 1 on GC, then whoa dude, you aren't looking, and thats the most explicit game on that system with the moaning, the killing and more moaning and the ever so lovable Rayne. RE4 has NOTHING on BR when it comes to hot, sexy, female, half-vampire half-human, who moans very erotically when biting a nazi while shooting up everyone behind the nazi. Theres also Killer 7, which has some softcore sex in it, which indeed features fully clothed people, and moaning, and... more moaning, GC version is supiror). How they control the fact that it was marketted the casual gamer that it was a "Kiddie" system along with "kiddie" games.

 

Dispite their more laxed rules, easy to develop system, deveopers didn't technically flock towards it (For a number of reasons, 1 would be Nintendo being very controlling, which they aren't a whole lot these days. Some games even get a boost if their ps2 and/or Xbox, MKD got more features since it didn't have online play). It doesn't sell for a reason, and it'd be the games, their are some good games and then there are some excellent games on the GC. It just takes proper time to find them.

[Lucandrake]

which the avg consumer won't bother looking for ????

[garyoak99]

which the avg consumer won't bother looking for ????

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes, I'm afraid that most humans are quite lazy when it comes to looking for good games rather than the more FAMOUS games that are on the Playstation 2. This is probably why the GameCube is doing so badly compared with the Playstation 2.

[Alucard1475]

They better make sure the next nintendo revolution is well developed against sonyPS3 etc.