Why did the Gamecube fail?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

IcaroRibeiro said:

RolStoppable said:

The Nintendo 64 focused on 3D games, and early 3D games feel clunky and stiff in comparison to the brilliant fluidity of the gameplay in the 16-bit era. Super Mario 64 may have been the foundation for a lot of 3D gaming, but it pales in comparison to how good SNES games were. Nintendo's direction with first party software did more damage to the Nintendo 64 than the loss of third party IPs to Sony's PS1.

Do you really believe this or is a made-up narrative that pop up from your mind because you refuse to believe people actually do care for 3rd parties and Nintendo systems just failed to delivery it?

Your point makes me wonder if Nintendo customers who owned a SNES dropped console gaming ignoring PS1/Xbox/Saturn existence until Wii was back so they could play arcade games or whatever (because Wii sports is for sure a very arcade-like experience) again

People jump from SNES to PS1 because 3rd party line up was stronger on PS1 than on N64. Nintendo 64 games were just as good as PS1 games and still just as well liked, but PS1 library was unbeatable in quantity. People in no way dislikes N64 games, nor those games alienated Nintendo fans you are in reality the first person I see saying such a thing

The only market I can agree with you that really behaves like this is Japan, as they really seems to cherish Nintendo 2D roots and home consoles from Sony/Microsoft never got as big there as Nintendo systems, but elsewhere...? Well, not really

The truth is most gamers (even current Nintendo owners) aren't 40 years old boomers who grew playing NES. Most of gamers know console gaming from 3D afterwards or from late 90's/early 00's handhelds. Those gamers expect a experience (as you call, PC gaming experience) and MS and Sony just made a better job doing it (well, according to sales), hence Nintendo need to change strategy to difference itself and recover some of its past market share

And saying Wii U was made thinking on 3rd party is quite a stretch when we compare its hardware to PS4 and XBONE. I'm curious why do you think a platform that had a Gamepad and Xbox 360 hardware power was supposed to attract 3rd party when all that 3rd party did was avoid that said system?

I live in the US, and I can tell you that I knew many, many people who owned a NES.  None of my close friends in college had a SNES or Genesis, but I did see a fair amount of them around from various acquaintences.  I also knew a variety of people throughout the years who had computers, and as I got older I encountered more and more who gamed on a PC.  I also knew several people who had a PS1 when it was a current system.  I only ever saw one person who owned a N64 while it was a current system, and that guy also had a PS1.  Now obviously, I tended to hang out with people who were my own age.

Years later, when I started looking at sales data, I was shocked how many people actually owned a N64, and that North America was actually it's strongest region.  Where were all of these people?  The answer is that they were young kids when the N64 was a current system.  They never got accustomed to 2D Mario, so to them, 3D Mario is the real Mario.  Meanwhile, to the people who owned an NES when it was current, 2D Mario is the real Mario and 3D Mario is garbage.  That one guy I knew with the N64 let me try Mario 64, and my reaction was "WTF?"  It felt like Mario had jumped the shark.  It did not feel like a real Mario game at all.  Meanwhile all of the gamers my age were playing PS1 or PC (or both).  None of us wanted an N64.

Why did my friends and I switch to Playstation?  Two reasons: 1) N64 did not have games that I liked.  2) PS1 did.  Nintendo made games I liked for NES (especially) and also SNES.  But SNES also had great third party games like Final Fantasy 4/6 and Castlevania 4 and so on.  PS1 had the sequels to these games.  If N64 actually had 2D Mario and Zelda on it, then I would have had a really tough decision.  Do I get the system with Mario and Zelda or the system with Final Fantasy?  Since N64 didn't have 2D Mario and Zelda, then my decision was easy: get a PS1.

NES was not a system for kids only.  I knew lots of people with NES and I even saw some adults (parents) play it.  They tended to play games like Duck Hunt, Super Mario 1, Tetris and Dr Mario.  SNES didn't really have games that appealed to adults (parents) and N64 most certainly didn't (but PS1 didn't either).  Parents like to play games too, probably now more than ever, but have limited time.  Arcade games that are quick and intense appeal to parents and that is doubly true if they have local multiplayer.  During the NES days, kids liked these games too.  Everyone liked arcade style games during the 80's and older gamers still do.

So, Playstation games tend to be most appealing to male gamers in their late teens and 20's.  Nintendo systems always appeal to kids.  But that still leaves parents and female gamers.  When Nintendo makes good games for these groups, then they tend to get the most success.  And that large install base attracts more third party games, which in turn attracts even more people (even some male gamers in their teens/twenties).  Having a large game library helps a system a lot, because no one wants to buy a system and just play 1-2 games.  So third party games don't need to sell 10m+, but there do need to be a good amount of third party games to go with the first party staples.  On the other hand, if Nintendo doesn't make games for these groups, then some just don't game and others wander over to Playstation or XBox to see what they have.  Short, intense, arcade-like, action games are the most preferred for a large amount of people in the US though, as long as they are actually being made.