Where Does Nintendo Go If Wii U Never Takes Off?

[Screamapillar]

Soundwave said:

Screamapillar said:

Soundwave said:

Claymore said:
Little tip Nintendo made more money off the Gamecube than Sony did off the PS2.

False actually. Sony made a tremendous amount of money off the PS2. 

Nintendo made a lot of money in those years because of the GBA and also because it was the peak of the Pokemon craze with all the merchandising/movies/etc. raking up huge dollars. 

GameCube was profitable for Nintendo.  They made some money on the hardware itself, but combined with the software and accessories sales it was a very profitable business for them.  GBA and Pokemon contribued heavily to profits too, of course.

They made some money off the GameCube but probably not a ton. The GameCube was actually sold at a slight loss when it launched (about $20 loss IIRC) and they had to lose money again when they cut the price to $99, but had no choice because inventory was piling up in their warehouses that was sitting there unsold. 

Not only that, but sales of almost all their key franchises dropped a lot during the GameCube days ...

Super Mario 64 - 11.62 million WW  --- Super Mario Sunshine - 5.9 million WW

Zelda: OoT - 8 million WW   --- Zelda: Wind Waker - 4.6 million WW

Mario Kart 64 - 9 million WW --- Mario Kart: Double Dash - 7 million WW 

GoldenEye - 8 million WW --- Metroid Prime - 2 million WW

I kinda used GoldenEye and Metroid Prime as comparables, because I think Nintendo was hoping that Metroid Prime would be the GoldenEye for the GameCube. 

Super Smash Bros. sold more on the GCN, but it did come out fairly late in the N64 life cycle. 

You're forgetting the price cut to $149 in May 2002, seven months after launch.  Which I suppose indicates that they were able to significantly reduce the manufacturing cost of the system in a very short amount of time.  I assume that was when they finally out-sourced manufacturing to places like China and Russia and didn't have to pay exorbitant wages for manufacturing in Japan.