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

[NightDragon83]

Soundwave said:

NightDragon83 said:

GC's release date wasn't an issue at all... Nintendo had plenty of software to release for the N64 in 2000 and wasn't going to try to rush the console out the door just to match the PS2's NA launch in fall 2000.  As mentioned previously, the biggest obstacles the GC faced were it's "kiddy" image thanks to the purple lunchbox design, and Nintendo's failure to appeal to the older / mass audiences with things like DVD playback functionality and groudbreaking mature games like GTAIII which singlehandedly won the generation for Sony.

Also, the marketing for the GC's entire life cycle was abysmal.  You hardly saw any TV commercials for GC or its games compared to the bombardment of PS2 ads, even the Xbox had plenty of advertising as Halo was everywhere and Halo 2 was a mega event.  The GC had a very good software library overall, but it sorely lacked that killer app like a Halo or GTA that moved tons of consoles and reached huge audiences.

XBOX would've pretty much been dead in the water launching a full year behind both PS2 and GCN. They should've just turned the cheaper N64 into a kids Pokémon machine in 2000 and switched projects like Perfect Dark and Majoras Mask to GCN launch games IMO. Those were wasted on the N64, PD basically couldn't even run without the expansion pack. They had that Pikachu N64 anyway. Banjo, Mackey Speedway, Pokémon spin offs for N64, Perfect Dark, Conker, Sin & Punishment, Zelda MM for GameCube launch. No purple, no orange, silver or black GCN only at first. Full sized DVD with the option to add DVD playback via a remote control accessorie. November 2000 launch. Bye bye Xbox, hello second place at least.

I don't follow the logic here... the Xbox still would have had roughly the same amout of success if the GC had launched a year earlier, because the GC had little to no effect on Xbox sales in the first place.  Halo and Xbox Live are what moved OG Xbox consoles, and both of these would still happen regardless of when the GC launched.  Xbox appealed to an entirely different segment of the gaming market than the GC did, so you can't blame Xbox for the GC's poor sales.  If the Xbox never existed, I'd wager most Xbox owners would've purchased a PS2 instead of a GC anyway, so it's not like the GC would've gained ground on the PS2.

Sure, GC probably would have sold more in total had it been released a year earlier, but no way would all those N64 games be ready for a 2000 launch or early 2001 release.  Plus, it still would've been close to a year before the GC started seeing "real" next-gen quality titles like Rogue Squadron II, Pikmin and SSB Melee, so you'd basically have nothing but N64 ports with slightly better graphics for the first year of the GC's life (think Dreamcast-quality graphics for 3rd party titles that also saw cross-gen releases on PS1/N64).

It took Rare nearly 2 years for example to take an original N64 game like Dinosaur Planet and rework it into Starfox Adventures for the GC, so games like MM, PD, Conker, and Banjo Tooie would've never been ready for a 2000 launch on GC.  Same thing with Eternal Darkness, also originally an N64 title scheduled for release sometime in 2000 but saw numerous delays before finally being redeveloped for the GC and launching in mid 2002.