Why did the Gamecube do so poorly? (with respect to sales)

[mrstickball]

Esa-Petteri said:

mrstickball said:

Lets see:

• Kiddie console with tons of Nintendo games (lack of 3rd party support)
• Worst console design in the past ~10+ years
• Bad brand image (N64 had ruined what they had during the NES/SNES years)
• Lack of core audience (audience was either kids, or hardcore Nintendo users) - Sony had already begun to gather the core audiences, and Microsoft was comitted to get the hardcore/PC users

The problem with their marketing was that they were indeed targeting younger kids - and had no games that anyone that was a teen, or SWM would give a care about, outside of an N-fanatic.

 

Are you talking about wii or gamecube? :O I really don't see any difference between last nintendo consoles. Other than the amount of shovelware that is.

There are a few differeces between the Wii and GC that make a world of difference:

• GC design was atrocious (Purple lunchbox? WTF?) versus a sleek, elegant iPod-esque Wii
• Kiddie Console (marketed almost entirely to the kids that have no $$$) as opposed to marketed to casual adults with plenty of cash
• Better brand image - the DS went a long way of helping repair the Wii's image, IMO, since it's had far more games centered to adults & has had great 3rd party support.

The Wii still lacks the solid core-centric 3rd party titles, which is why the PS3/X360 have had userbases well above what the GC/Xbox did, but otherwise, Nintendo has done a much better job this time of going after marketshare aggressively.