By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Why is the GameCube selling better than the Wii U???

 

Why are GC sales>Wii U sales

Interest in Nintendo has waned 74 13.33%
 
Wii U still hasn't had s... 22 3.96%
 
Little kids bought GameCu... 34 6.13%
 
Wii U marketing much worse 135 24.32%
 
Increased competition 23 4.14%
 
Lower 3rd party support 82 14.77%
 
Nintendo gamers jumped ship after the Wii 30 5.41%
 
None of these make sense 38 6.85%
 
All of these are true (-#8) 81 14.59%
 
Other 36 6.49%
 
Total:555
zorg1000 on 01 March 2015
platformmaster918 said:
GC was cheaper and it had more residual Nintendo fans from their glory days. Basically that number of hardcore Nintendo fan of the 80s who buy new Nintendo systems is lessening every gen. Wii had the casuals so it's hard to tell, but now we see again the decline in fans of their franchises who are willing to invest in new stuff. Their holdover is pretty good but they can't generate new fans for whatever reason. There are exceptions to be sure such as my neighbors who have two small children who have a WiiU and never owned a system themselves but these are rare and the larger movement is less and less newbies each gen excluding Wii. NES 60, SNES 40, N64 32, NGC 21, WiiU 18 hopefully?

No its not the number of hardcore Nintendo fans leaving, it's the number of non-hardcore Nintendo leaving.

The drop from NES to SNES mostly occured in America and was due to Nintendo giving Sega a 2 year head start which allowed them to build momentum and launch their killer app (Sonic) before SNES came to the market. Sega also had a successful ad campaign proclaiming Nintendo to be for kids, which Nintendo pretty much admitted to when they censored blood out of Mortal Kombat.

The drop from SNES to N64 mostly occurred in Japan due to losing the big RPG and fighting fanbases. Games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest moved onto PS which consisted of 40% of the SNES top 10 games and the Street Fighter fanbase moved onto the big 3D fighters of the mid 90's like Tekken and Virtua Fighter which were on the competitors consoles.

The drop from N64 to GC mostly occured in America due to losing their strong FPS fanbase. GoldenEye was basically the Call of Duty of the late 90's and they lost that crowd to Xbox and Halo. With the shooter fanbase gone, other genres like sports and racing took a hit as well due to those games typically sharing a similar demographic.

It was the loss of non-Nintendo gamers that contributed to Nintendo's decline gen over gen.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

Around the Network
GalactoGeist on 01 March 2015

I genuinely feel that when Nintendo turned their back on their hardcore fans last gen with the Wii, many jumped ship. Also marketing. Many hardcore gamers want nothing to do with the 'Wii' branding.



      

PwerlvlAmy on 01 March 2015

because he was cute as hell with its little handle



NND: 0047-7271-7918 | XBL: Nights illusion | PSN: GameNChick

Cloudman on 01 March 2015
DarkRPGamer007 said:

Face it, the Wii U and GameCube are basically the banes to Nintendo's amazing name, but even when you talk about GameCube, people will remember at least a decent amount of profit. So, why are Wii U sales so different? I mean, the point Wii U is at now is roughly where the GameCube was at March 2003 (time aligns with Wii U March 2014) and even with Mario Kart and Smash it hasn't picked up much footing. So what's the difference?


You think that`s bad? Once someone told me Japanese people don`t acknowledge the GC. Many people may have seen it as N64 -> Wii.

I`d have to say to the question, perhaps GC had the better games for awhile, and it was a really impressive system in comparison to the Wii U. Also, Smash came out around the 1st or 2nd month after the GC`s release.



 

              

Dance my pretties!

The Official Art Thread      -      The Official Manga Thread      -      The Official Starbound Thread

Wman1996 on 01 March 2015

There are a lot of issues at hand, but marketing is the Wii U's key failing. I very rarely see ads for the Wii U, yet I see ads often for the Xbox One and Playstation 4. Heck, I remember seeing plenty of GameCube ads back in the day.



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 151 million (was 73, then 96, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million)

PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 57 million (was 60 million, then 67 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

Around the Network
foxtail on 02 March 2015

Moreover the Gamecube was very front loaded and enjoyed deep price cuts due to the price war with Sony.

All of it's top ten best selling games were released between FY 2001-2003 except Mario Party 7 (FY 2005).  

The top ten best sellers on the Gamecube were also all Nintendo first party titles. (listed below in order)

  1. Super Smash Bros. Melee - FY 2001 (JP/NA)
  2. Mario Kart: Double Dash‼ - FY 2003 (JP/NA)
  3. Super Mario Sunshine - FY 2002 (JP/NA)
  4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - FY 2002 (JP)/FY 2003 (NA)
  5. Luigi's Mansion - FY 2001 (JP/NA)
  6. Animal Crossing - FY 2001 (JP)/FY 2002 (NA)
  7. Mario Party 4 - FY 2002 (JP/NA)
  8. Metroid Prime - FY 2002 (JP/NA)
  9. Mario Party 7 - FY 2005 (JP/NA)
  10. Pokémon Colosseum - FY 2003 (JP/NA)

Breakdown by fiscal year (FY) - 

FY 2001

  • Super Smash Bros. Melee
  • Luigi's Mansion
  • Animal Crossing (JP)

FY 2002

  • Super Mario Sunshine
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (JP)
  • Animal Crossing (NA)
  • Mario Party 4
  • Metroid Prime

FY 2003

  • Mario Kart: Double Dash‼
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (NA)
  • Pokémon Colosseum

FY 2005

  • Mario Party 7

In May of 2002 in the U.S. they cut the price to $149 from $199 and in September of 2003 was another cut to $99.

Here is a chart I made for Software + Hardware sales during the Gamecube years.

Below are sales for the years that are covered by the Gamecube:

Console and Handheld Sales for FY 2001-2006 (Hardware + Software) in Millions JPY (¥)

Fiscal Year Handheld Console Other Hardware
FY 2001 354,532 163,114 26,878
FY 2002 255,615 200,879 41,453
FY 2003 318,086 140,628 49,679
FY 2004 352,301 116,418 41,690
FY 2005 396,530 75,171 32,947
FY 2006 665,979 238,839 54,258

Gamecube was released near the tail end of 2001 (JP/NA)
DS was released near the tail end of 2004 (JP/NA)
Wii was released near the tail end of 2006 (JP/NA) 

FY 2002 was the best year for the Gamecube and it's first full year on the market.  
In FY 2002 we had a new Mario, Zelda Metroid, Animal Crossing and Mario Party.


ExplodingBlock on 02 March 2015
forethought14 said:
Wii U is waaaaayyyy too expensive, and its marketing is horrible compared to the GameCube. I'm surprised it's even selling as much as it is.


Alright, point to where Nintendo touched you



platformmaster918 on 02 March 2015
zorg1000 said:
platformmaster918 said:
GC was cheaper and it had more residual Nintendo fans from their glory days. Basically that number of hardcore Nintendo fan of the 80s who buy new Nintendo systems is lessening every gen. Wii had the casuals so it's hard to tell, but now we see again the decline in fans of their franchises who are willing to invest in new stuff. Their holdover is pretty good but they can't generate new fans for whatever reason. There are exceptions to be sure such as my neighbors who have two small children who have a WiiU and never owned a system themselves but these are rare and the larger movement is less and less newbies each gen excluding Wii. NES 60, SNES 40, N64 32, NGC 21, WiiU 18 hopefully?

No its not the number of hardcore Nintendo fans leaving, it's the number of non-hardcore Nintendo leaving.

The drop from NES to SNES mostly occured in America and was due to Nintendo giving Sega a 2 year head start which allowed them to build momentum and launch their killer app (Sonic) before SNES came to the market. Sega also had a successful ad campaign proclaiming Nintendo to be for kids, which Nintendo pretty much admitted to when they censored blood out of Mortal Kombat.

The drop from SNES to N64 mostly occurred in Japan due to losing the big RPG and fighting fanbases. Games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest moved onto PS which consisted of 40% of the SNES top 10 games and the Street Fighter fanbase moved onto the big 3D fighters of the mid 90's like Tekken and Virtua Fighter which were on the competitors consoles.

The drop from N64 to GC mostly occured in America due to losing their strong FPS fanbase. GoldenEye was basically the Call of Duty of the late 90's and they lost that crowd to Xbox and Halo. With the shooter fanbase gone, other genres like sports and racing took a hit as well due to those games typically sharing a similar demographic.

It was the loss of non-Nintendo gamers that contributed to Nintendo's decline gen over gen.

choose to see it how you like I'm merely observing the trend.  Nintendo gamers grow up and some keep buying but some don't.  I have a couple roommates who nostalgically look back to their NGC and N64 and will defend the company and of course play with me on my WiiU to this day but they don't invest in new stuff.  It's just those people who go on Facebook and talk about how fun N64 was but now maybe will buy a 3DS but have moved on in many cases.  Take that as anecdotal if you wish but it represents a larger trend.




Get Your Portable ID!Lord of Ratchet and Clank

Duke of Playstation Plus

Warden of Platformers

dharh on 02 March 2015
KingdomHeartsFan said:

GC was cheaper.


Pretty much this.

 

I thought GC was pretty much junk, but I at least bought one when buying it for 2-3 games total was worth the price. The Wii U is nowhere near that price yet and doesn't look like it's going to be there any time soon.



A warrior keeps death on the mind from the moment of their first breath to the moment of their last.
foxtail on 02 March 2015

Another thing to note was that around 8 months after the Gamecube dropped to $99 the PS2 dropped it's price to $149.  The competition between console makers back then was really beneficial to all consumers.