Childishness(and i am not talking about the console) hurt the Gamecube

 >_>...

I love the GC it gave me games like WW, Pikmin, Metroid, DK jungle beat and RE4 and the other RE games but it did not have a very good Mario kart game and even mario sunshine was not that good (nothing compared to Galaxy though better than a lot of other games on other consoles) but it sure had some of the best games out there.

The problem then was that people were always oh it is a kiddy console and trying to be all mature and cool so they went with the trend and did not buy one. After all it was purple and cool people don’t buy purple stuff as it is kiddy and some might even say it was gay :P

It had no mature content no matter how you looked at it was only for kids even the RE games and Metroid and all the other mature content were for kids back then!

And it was purple!!

Early design choices such as only releasing the purple color for the system for the first few months, the controller style (harbringer to the simplicity control style that Nintendo would later try to master on the Wii controller) and disk space (mini discs  with 1.5 GB storage compared to 4.7 of its competitors).

These along with the emergence of the Xbox, pretty much doomed the system with most third parties who most didn't feel the GC was worth altering their designs just to properly match the GC. Which perpelled the idea that games on Nintendo ssystems would only sell for kids and families and that drove down 3rd party interest, especially bad as the last generation was the one were western developers started to come into their own.

Some could blame the first party software and there is case to made for that as well, but compared to what was done on the N64 before it, Nintendo actual had a diverse lineup of software just not as many sure fire classics, exclusive to the system. In part, due Nintendo's desire to experiment/make them different more then graphically from the previous systems in the franchises and also their attempts to lure companies to develop for them by going the MS route and paying them, which lead to stuff like FF: Crystal Chronicles and third party developed games like Star Fox Assault.

With the DS they learned their lesson a little, and took some of that (but not really all of it) with them to the Wii. Currently they are still in the lead for this generation, despite not having nearly as much support of the major third parties but time will tell, if they can maintain it and make the Wii a symbol of evolution and not just a fad for consoles.

i dont have an idea it did have some of the same SW as the Wii mario kart, DK, SSB, ect

i for one switched form nintendo during the n64 era but i eventually bought a GC(black to match my ps2) for RE4 at the time it was exclusive for it so i bought a GC a few months b4 RE4 launch, pretty good system i liked the notches in the controller for the sticks it was easier to find the inbetweens for the directional moments, i ended up getting the whole RE series (was pretty hard to find) for it even though i had em for PS1 idk im OCD like that, also i replayed MGS on it

What Rol said is certainly true. I'd add few things:

Xbox could be easily modded. I had a few friends who modded their xboxes soon after launch. I'm not sure if it was quite as easy for gamecube and ps2.

Later in the generation xbox had the best edition of third party games, whether it be burnout 3, Timesplitters future perfect, or Splinter cell chaos theory.  This was thanks in large part to xbox live.

The xbox had the ability to store and play mp3's.

Except for fighting games, right joystick>c stick.

Lies lies lies!

All good reasons why it didn't sell particularly well.

It did have online by the way, but they didn't exactly push it.

Probably the most valid points made in this thread.

Because it was an overpriced lunchbox.