super6646 said:
Soundwave said:
The GameCube could have worked, but only if Microsoft didn't enter the business.
Once there was *both* Sony and Microsoft to deal with, it just became too much of an uphill climb to provide the same group of people a third option they simply didn't want.
Simply put in a traditional console sense, Nintendo needed to bloody Microsoft's nose so bad in that GameCube gen that they would retreat and say "you know what? Making consoles isn't for us". But Nintendo didn't fight hard/smart enough that generation and the repurcussion is they allowed both Sony and MS to walk onto their territory and now there's no moving them. Once the mistake of letting MS get too comfortable in the game business was made, there was no undoing it. Genie came out of the bottle.
Ultimately that's the problem with the "C'mon Nintendo! Make a An Aweomse Third Party Console (read: a Nintendo Playstation)!". Two's company, three's a crowd. If MS wasn't in the business then Nintendo would have some room to maneuver, but since they are, it's just become impossible basically.
In hindsight, they should've just accepted MS' initial offer of putting Windows CE on the GameCube and made them an ally rather than another enemy that they didn't need. I still don't even know what the hell Windows CE did on the Dreamcast anyway but it didn't seem to negatively impact the games any, so who cares.
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They sold the goddamn thing for 99$ in just a few years (gamecube). So yes, they fought hard.
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Fighting hard/smart. Making your console look like a purple child's lunchbox ... probably not the smartest messaging. Cell shading the first Zelda game ... again probably not smart. A Mario vacation/jet pack game ... probably not smart. Just handing the FPS audience Nintendo owned with GoldenEye/Perfect Dark to MS with Halo and not putting up any fight or resistance ... probably not smart.
By the time they dropped the GameCube to $99.99, the XBox itself was $149-$179 too ... so like it wasn't that big of a deal and MS by then had gotten that feeling of "hey, we're beating Nintendo at least, maybe we do have a future in this business". Damage done.
In hindsight they needed to launch the GameCube in fall 2000 (one full year before). No purple lunch box. Move Perfect Dark and Majora's Mask to GameCube launch titles. Build a 7-8 million unit headstart and Microsoft is never catching you. They finish a distant third, pack up their bags and go home (or easier still, just agree to use freaking Windows, who cares really).
