The Failure Of The GameCube Really Is Where It All Went Wrong

[GhaudePhaede010]

Soundwave said:

GhaudePhaede010 said:

Not going to lie... the original post is ludicrous.

Nintendo's biggest mistake was breaking their deal with Sony for the SNES CD. Every other mistake was a side bar to this mistake.

Nintendo's smartest move was using Gunpei's ideology to create DS and Wii. Unfortunately, they stopped paying attention to Gunpei once they got to the top and the mistake of the SNES CD snafu has outlasted the positives of paying attention to Gunpei.

This makes Gamecube a push as Wii would not exist without it.

Also, Gamecube had far more mistakes than its release date. As a matter fact, the release date was hardly an obstacle at all. People did not want a purple, "lunchbox" with a controller that they thought was less than adequate and childish looking. Wii launched two days after PS3 and we all know how that went.

I think I do state in the OP that not making the N64 a CD system (or cart + CD system) was a huge mistake obviously. We all know that. But they still were in decent shape to regain decent footing had they acted better with the GameCube. 

Yes, the Wii had tremendous profit for 4 years, but 4 years worth of profit is not enough to sustain Nintendo. By making the Wii they effectively basically gave Sony/MS the entire traditional console market, which would've been OK if they could have maintained their new market, but they completely lost their entire new market too. 

That's largely because casual/fringe gamers are inherintely unpredictable, we see that even with things like Pokemon Go ... it's something that's highly popular for a period of time, but then starts to drop off very quickly too. Pokemon Go is still doing well, but you can see it's starting to cool off and could fall off in a year or two. Kinect on the XBox also is the same story. 

They needed to do well enough with the GameCube to keep Microsoft out of the business. Had they bided their time, likely Sony would've made the same $600 mistake with the PS3, because they got obsessed with winning the next movie format race, that would've been the opening for Nintendo to then move in and take over. 

1) You may have stated that but that is NOT what I am saying. I am directly saying that Nintendo's biggest mistake was allowing Sony to become a competitor. Not making a CD based console is a mistake, but even that mistake pales in comparison to breaking a deal with Sony and then Sony launching what most people consider, "SNES 2" and murdering Nintendo.

2) Wii's profits for four years were outlandish. As another poster noted, in its fifth year, Wii sold 10 million units. Gamecube sold twenty-somthing million for its lifetime. Even if Gamecube sold better, where was Nintendo going to go next? The benefit of Wii outshines anything you are thinking. Plus, Nintendo's mistakes after Wii an DS were even more crucial than Gamecube. They were the market leader in dominating fashion and they made just about every mistake possible to ensure Wii U was misunderstood and marketed improperly. Dropping them to irrelevance in the home console race. How can the Gamecube be a bigger mistake than that? It is not possible.

3) Nothing you said in this portion of your post is something that I agree with; however, I do not want to debate it and I am not going to.

4) Because this point right here is where I want to go. If Sony never makes Playstation and Microsoft has to go head-to-head against Nintendo, Microsoft has 0 chance. No chance at all. Nintendo would slaughter Microsoft with its Japanese sales alone. And even if Microsoft still goes huge with Halo, other compaines like Rockstar that previously made games for Nintendo (Body Harvest) would most likely continue their partnerships because they are already familiar with Nintendo, Nintendo would have all the marketshare, and Nintendo would have much deeper pockets since Sony was not there to take the marketshare away. There is not one single benefit for NIntendo to having Sony as a competitor and that is what I am saying. That mistake is, without a doubt, the biggest mistake in Nintendo history. For you to imply it could be anythig else is, as I said earlier, ludicrous.