Was this gen unwinnable for Xbox?

[Pemalite]

curl-6 said:

Pemalite said:

Only if Nintendo never managed to turn a profit from the platform... Which ironically is probably hard to quantify over the long term as many of the Gamecubes best games are some of the best games of all time... And Nintendo has remastered/re-released them generation after generation and made money from those titles. I.E. Metroid Prime on Switch being a prime example.

Microsoft Series even though it's only sold a fraction of the Xbox 360 consoles, is still a success as Microsoft has made a profit on the platform. (Their gaming division since the Xbox Series Launched has raked in over $80 billion.)

I wouldn't count stuff like say Wind Waker HD or Metroid Prime Remastered as part of the Gamecube ecosystem personally, as by the time they were remade Gamecube was long dead and buried.

There's factors other than just profitability as well; Gamecube saw Nintendo's market share shrink significantly, which is not the mark of successful platform.

The budgets for those games came at a cost during the Gamecube generation, which would have eroded profit margins at the time.

The WiiU added another 2.4~ million copies to Wind Wakers sales and now has rolled into Nintendo's subscription service for recurring revenue... So some of the expenses during the Gamecubes life is being recouped even today.

Marketshare isn't everything, profits are... Because that ultimately dictates support, re-releases, remasters, remakes and sequels in the end.
Microsoft is making more money than Nintendo or Sony and they sell the least amount of hardware... And because of that, they can still justify another console generation.