psrock said:
Zucas said:
TheSource said:
They're getting there. I think GC had a December over 1m in its best year in the USA.
|
It did in December 2003 where it sold 1.15 million units. Preceded by 750k sold in November 2003. Sales were obviously lifted thanks to the strong release of Mario Kart Double Dash which sold 528k in its opening month. Actually 2003 was a pretty successful year for Nintendo on the Gamecube in general and here was one of their press releases concerning it:
Source
Very traditional form of spin but kinda interesting how these things seem to repeat in history. 2004 on the other hand was not a very strong year for the Gamecube as it fell off pretty hard through most of the year although a good December with 810k instead. Not saying we'll see something similar for PS3 as the market is much bigger and PS3 is in much better positioning, but amazing how you can look back at these things and see the exact same things you did then now. Reminds me of political arguments where politicians love to put the past behind to make everything now seem life changing when indeed it has happened before. Politicians and PR are of course the same profession haha.
|
Funny thing, the Cube also had a price drop in September which sent it sales high.
http://www.beststuff.com/fromthewire/nintendo-gamecube-price-drops-to-99.html
|
Well of course I'm sure the pricedrop did help but it obviously didn't affect sales all that much as September 2003 (170k for GC) and October 2003 (250k for GC) were not that much higher than the previous year's GC sales (160k and 170k units respectively). It's possible it had some delayed sales until the holiday season were it took off a little better, but it seems the main kicker for the price to be a big factor was Mario Kart: Double Dash releasing. Sales did jump from 250k in October 2003 to 750k in November 2003.
From what I can gather, pricedrop for Gamecube was not that effective aside from maybe a big holiday push due to some better marketing which fizzled out quickly in 2004.
Also like to point out that the original Xbox never had a December month (outside of launch year and 360 launch year) where it didn't sell a million. To show:
December 2002- 1.04 million
December 2003- 1.10 million
December 2004- 1.05 million
