How would Gamecube have done if

[S.T.A.G.E.]

Soundwave said:

S.T.A.G.E. said:

The Gamecube couldn't have outperformed the PS2 with the mentality Nintendo had at the time. The PS2 was pushed DVD tech, had a better relationship with third parties and still had a competitive price. Nintendos biggest issues back then were the following scars from the N64 era in lacking adequate third party support to gain enough attention vs the Playstation. The Model of the Gamecube turned off people giving them the image that this box was just for children, when the games proved that couldn't be any further from the truth. Their marketing was off and their first party games were second tier compared to even the N64. People waited forever for the successor to Super Mario 64 and got Super Mario Sunshine and Luigi's mansion. They could've used that idea as a new IP and made a spiritual successor to Super Mario 64. Theres so much more, but I'll leave it at this for now.

No arguements on making the system look too much like a toy.

That said I think the system would've gained a fair deal of third party support. It was more powerful than the PS2 and far easier to program for and even cheaper in cost. So there was nothing wrong with the chip itself, it was very well designed, it was the casing that was slapped over it and Nintendo taking so long to release it.

Dump that mini-DVD design choice and ditch the kiddie colors and it probably would've sold quite a bit if they had released the console sooner, which in turn would've brought in more third party support.

I think it would be less about Sony though, what would've happened if Nintendo made a few common sense adjustments to the GameCube is that the XBox would've just failed flat out, as there would be no room in the market for it, so Nintendo probably would've gained from that more than anything.

Well the power part definitely was in Nintendos hands but Sony and MS had more storage capacity because of the 8GB DVD sizes. It gave devs an advantage in making larger scaled games where as the Cube could only make games around the size of a GB. Sony made up for their losses by thinking wisely about what would keep the hardware cost efficient in that way and kept tech ahead of the curve. The potential for the larger games were closed for Nintendo. Very similar issues as to why the N64 though higher in graphical ability than the PS couldn't out do its multimedia capabilities and it changed the way we think about scalable games on consoles in a median view to how traditional gaming and PC. basically the perfect blend. MS followed suit with DVD and it was a wise decision.

Nintendo's kiddy design is really was not a marketing failure, but truly showed who they are focused on as a child/family oriented brand. The other games for the older gamers would come but Nintendo traditionally knows where they stand. From a mass market perspective, none of those boxes were good looking and they ended up all looking like bulky bricks. The only console I could say was genuinely awesome looking was the PS2 slim. The cube was definitely not designed to appeal to a mass audience though.