the gamecube design was an instant WTF. It looked terrible. The controller looked terrible and who the hell chose the colors. Nintendo learned good design the hard way. I am really unimpressed by wiu hardware and games but the console design is way better.
| Kyros said: the gamecube design was an instant WTF. It looked terrible. The controller looked terrible and who the hell chose the colors. Nintendo learned good design the hard way. I am really unimpressed by wiu hardware and games but the console design is way better. |
Yep. When all else fails, just tear a page from Apple's industrial design handbook. Works every time.
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| Kyros said: the gamecube design was an instant WTF. It looked terrible. The controller looked terrible and who the hell chose the colors. Nintendo learned good design the hard way. I am really unimpressed by wiu hardware and games but the console design is way better. |
I always thought that the GC's controller and design was the best of the 3 consoles. But it truly lacked in the memory card department. Compared ot the Xbox's huge design and huge controller at the beginning, the GC had it beat hands down. PS2 was a close second but I just always preferred GC's.
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nice article confused a few things already mentioned above, but overall I agree, I don't remember the Cube having all that great of a launch, another thing is I think Nintendo in many senses beat Microsoft, I am sure they made more money. Even the though the Cube lost, Nintendo still made a lot of cash out of it and it was very profitable.
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You guys are smoking crack! When the cube was released it was freaking cutting edge design. Learn your history folks! The Cube was also based on a Mac product that was high in demand. It even has many of the same components of the Mac product it was based on. The design was brilliant, Nintendo was able to nail it spot on where Apple had many issues with their version of the Cube. Apple had to do a bunch of recalls due to plastic cracks and decided that their cube would see the axe in favor of the tower (that they earlier ridiculed for being too PC'ish)
Now, another thing which was pure genius of Nintendo was their disc design. That disc ensured that it would be pretty hard to copy any Gamecube game. It was the best anti piracy measure of the 3 console makers. The things most of you guys are accusing Nintendo of being out in left field on were some of the best things that the Cube brought to gaming. The system is very reliable, easily the most reliable of last gen. It was quiet, had a top loading disc drive, was cheap to manufacture and looked very futuristic at the time.
You can criticize the cube all you want, Nintendo put a LOT of thought into that lunchbox and it shows. Nintendo's biggest problem was their history. They made huge mistakes during the N64 era and the entire company walked on egg shells. They invented modern 3d gaming and somehow lost their way as a developer. They weren't able to spit out as many games as they did on the SNES and NES and they didn't understand what people wanted out of 3d games. They sat around thinking too much and they didn't spend enough time actually doing something. There have been countless interviews where people inside Nintendo have admitted they didn't know what to do when it came to make a 3d game. They were so use to making 2d games, their competition knew this and walked all over them.
Here's a secret Nintendo still has a lot of developers who are scared of making 3d games. These guys were moved from being console developers to handheld developers at the end of the N64 era and we've seen a LOT of their awesome games show up on the GBA and DS. The guy who understands how to think in 3d the best is handling most of the Wii development now. Shigeru is their 3d teacher, he's been working with mostly YOUNG teams to train them with his vision. The old school Nintendo people handle our 2d/2.5d DS games.
Nintendo was LOST, like seriously LOST in the 3d world of games. This is why Sony went full force with their 3d or die mantra. They knew Nintendo couldn't adapt as fast when all it's dev's were out of touch with the new design tools. The N64 was too hard to program for by Nintendo's own people. It was a horrible design and no one was prepared at Nintendo to handle it other then Shigeru and his team.
So drop the idea that the cube was ugly. The ugliest thing about the Cube was the dirty secret that Nintendo hid from everyone. It took them 2 generations to get a handle on the programming end. This is one more reason why the Wii is basically a cube, Nintendo might be telling everyone that they were trying to keep dev costs down for third parties. Truth is, their teams learned how to do some great stuff on the cube and instead of being left behind again with a new way of doing game design on a new architecture they decided it would be easier for them to not retrain everyone and pump out games.
There are a few interviews which have talked about this topic but no one's really discussed it fully. You can easily see this though, I mean come on look at their game output and tell me I'm wrong.
Here's a pic in case you forget what it looked like:
Anyone notice something funny about this picture?? Oh ya... it's a freaking Gamecube AKA Apple G4 Cube
Here's an even better view of the Apple G4 Cube. Notice any design similarities???
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Darknight I think no one is arguing against cubes per se. Just purple ones with kiddie toy look. And the xbox was weird too. But yes third-party support was probably the biggest problem
| Kyros said: Darknight I think no one is arguing against cubes per se. Just purple ones with kiddie toy look. And the xbox was weird too. But yes third-party support was probably the biggest problem |
Purple was an IN color when the cube came out. It wasn't considered kiddie. I can show you a ton of equipment I had the pleasure of working with when the cube was released and it was all purple. For some reason tech companies liked purple. I blame SGI mostly... Actually a lot of it was Purple and looked very much like the GameCube, just a few more thermal fins and blue lights. The Cube may look kiddie now, but in 2001 the design was what everyone was going after in the tech business.
Yes third party software was a problem on the cube, Microsoft and Sony bought up the rights to publish a lot of games which were heading to the cube. Microsoft had money to throw around and Sony felt threatened by both MS and Nintendo. Sony may have put on a very arrogant face last gen, but for most of the console war they were playing dirty and scared. Last gen played out a lot like Vice City behind the scenes ;)
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The Gamecube is a legend! It's definitely my favorite console from the 6th generation. There are too many, great games! Super Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, are just some of the many, great games on the Gamecube. But, remove the first party games, and the Gamecube has almost nothing. Than again, the same can be said for many, or all consoles. I like all video game consoles. All of them. But the thing to remember most is that a console is nothing without the games. It's only the games that count, and not the consoles. Dreamcast, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox... They are just plastic, and metal. Therefore, I do not judge consoles, I only judge games.
Although I don't like the Playstation 2 as much as the Gamecube, I definitely think that it is a fantastic console. It definitely has more "good" games than the Gamecube. But, I still think that the Gamecube has more masterpieces, than the Playstation 2. However, franchises like Katamari, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Ratchet, and Jak, definitely remove any wonder on how the Playstation 2 became the best selling console of all time.
Although the Dreamcast died too early, it is still, definitely one of my favorite consoles. I don't know if I like it more than the Playstation 2, but games like Sonic Adventure 1, and 2, are so addicting, that it's hard not to like the Dreamcast. Jet Grind Radio... Crazy Taxi... Got to love them!
Xbox... Oh... The Xbox... My least favorite of them all... I like the Xbox. It is a good system. I don't think it's fantastic, but I do think it is good. Games like Halo, and Halo 2, are definite masterpieces. But, for me, that's where it all ends for the Xbox. Everything else either sucks, is a sports game, or your typical shooter. I play more emulated games on it, than real games. Mind you, the only Xbox games I own are Halo, and Halo 2, but still... Like I said, I don't hate. It is a good system, but I definitely find the number of good games on the system to be extremely lacking...
StarcraftManiac said: As all of you know, the PS2, the second 6th generation homeconsole to be released, took the record of best selling homeconsole to date!... When released, it competed with the Dreamcast which, after a year on the market, died a painfull death. I'd say the PS2 was competing with the DC even before either system launched. Sony blanketed information channels with tales of the miraculous graphical and healing powers of the PS2 in a deliberate attempt to make the DC stillborn. Some hardcore gamers still bought the DC (I'm guessing many were the few remaining Sega loyalists), but the main audience was convinced the PS2 was a technological marvel unsurpassed until the PS3. About a year later came the Gamecube. It had to bring Nintendo back on top after the N64's unexpected loss against the PSX. Announced at Space World 2000, the hype was at an alltime high at that time, releasing with an asstounding 300k in Japan first week! I remember chatting online during Nintendo's unveiling of the GameCube. The response was positively underwhelming, largely for aesthetic reasons (small disc, puple lunchpail). For a company struggling to shed the "kiddie" image it had been plastered with the prior generation, this was the precisely wrong move. But there was another contender on the horizon. Microsoft decided to build their own homeconsole after the Dreamcast failed. They had supported the dreamcast with Windows OS and online capabilities to try and stop Sony from becoming too big and enter their own monopoly market. When their first homeconsole was announced it got support from every major 3th party publisher except EA. This was worrying, for the Dreamcast didn't have their support either and everyone knows what happened to them! It was until December 2000 that the Xbox got EA's support. As others have stated, MS was developing the XB before the DC failed. And much of that 3rd party support was bought outright, paying developers to spend more time on their vesions, and to provide exclusive content. Microsoft, trying to get a firm grip on the homeconsole market, purchased Bungie and Rare (51% of the shares from Nintendo for an estimated 425 million $). And got a deal with Sega to bring out Panzer Dragoon Orta, Crazy Taxi 3, Jet set radio Future and Sega GT exclusively on Xbox. To be fair, Sega's games were pretty well split up on the other consoles. And given the dismal sales of PDO and JSRF, I'm not sure this was a factor in the console's success. The Xbox had a moddest start but didn't sell through the roof the first 6-12 months thanks to the clumsy design and the big controller. However, a launchgame called Halo would eventually seal the deal by engraving the Xbox's name in history. Certainly the 2nd most talked about game that season (#1 was GTA3) The Gamecube (codenamed Dolphin) got of to a hell of a nice start. With games like Star Wars Rogue Squadron II, Super Monkey Ball 1 and Luigi's Mansion right out of the box. The announcements of a 3D Metroid and a new Wave Racer made a lot of people purchase the sytem right when it came out. All was well for the Gamecube. the 3th party developers that had walked away from the N64 came right back to Nintendo and developers like Capcom made lucrative deal with Nintendo to bring out loads of exclusive titles for their newest itteration. Games like Resident evil 0 and 4, Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7 and PNO3 were announced. On top of that came Metal Gear solid II: The twin Snakes, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's requim and Super smash bros: Melee. I would quibble that it was off to a "hell of a nice start". Luigi's Mansion was deservedly lambasted for failing to maintain the quality of past Nintendo launch titles. SMB was a niche title that one might pick up if you already had a Cube, but it didn't move any hardware the way HALO and GTA3 did. Even Rogue Leader in retrospect pales next to the competition, which as it was largely a prettier version of an N64 game. The only real MUST HAVE title in the Cube's launch window was SSBM, and that was really aimed at the Nintendo loyalists. But the shadows remained. The PS2, that had been released ~1 year earlier had put a great gap between the numbers 2 and 3 (Gamecube and Xbox in respective order) And by the holiday season of 2002 it was obvious the gap couldn't be bridged. With games like Metal Gear solid, GT and Devil may cry 2 and FF10 and GTA3 and Silent Hill 2 and Jak and Dexter - honestly, from racing to RPGs the PS2 had every market cornered XMas 2001 - the PS2 propelled it's way to heaven leaving the battle for the 2nd place left. The Gamecube seemed to have the 2nd place firmly in grip because the Japanese seemed to avoid the Xbox. But sales started to slow down in Europe and The United States. XBox was also doing horribly in Europe, leading to some hysterically misleading quotes from MS. But after a few months they cut prices which completely reversed their fortunes. Games like Metroid Prime 2 didn't sell nearly as well as their former itterations had and 3th parties got worried. 3rd parties were worried long before MP2 came out. The pattern was established before 2002 was half over - PS2 would sell the most because it had the largest base, and XBox usually had the best version, often with extra content, thanks extra funing from MS. Nintendo lowered the price to 100$ but it didn't make a big difference because it didn't have DVD options By the time the GCN was $100 the DVD wasn't such a big deal anymore. Players were already $100 when the XBox launched, making the price of a Cube+DVD player equal to an XBox or PS2, but the following spring both Sony and MS cut their prices to $200, and Nintendo could only undercut them by $50, not enough to justify the difference. By the time Nintendo went down to $100, the Cube was entering it's 3rd Christmas and DVD players were in almost every home and the discs stopped people from frauding with the games. The first 4 months after the pricecut saw an increase of 200-300% from former sales but after 4 months, this increase had declined to almost 0%. Is this compared to the 4 months prior to the price cut or compared to the same time period the year before, because the cut happened at the end of September - the prior 4 months are the slowest for console sales, and and 3-4x jump in Oct-Jan wouldn't be a surprise even without a price cut. Being back at former levels, even when new High-profile games like Zelda: The Windwaker Windwaker was released 6 months before the price drop, and nearly a year before sales dropped again, were released in combination with low 3th party sales on the system resulted in a decline of support for Nintendo's lunchbox again, something that was apparant in the 1st year whilst the same games on the Xbox saw sales that could (in some form) compete with the PS2's. This is because Nintendo's games are the best a purely subjective argument, but it implies that quality and sales went hand in hand - even Nintendo-published, highly praised titles like Eternal Darkness and MP2 had weak sales while poorly reviewed Mario Party titles sold very well; more accurate I think is that the sales were highest on titles sporting established gaming icons like Mario, Zelda and Sonic (to pull in a 3rd party title), which most 3rd parties didn't have on Nintendo's system and as such. People tend to buy those earlier leaving the 3th parties with lower sales than on the PS2 or the Xbox. After some slow and painfull months for the Gamecube Halo 2 got released for the Xbox and GTA: San Andreas for the PS2 and the Xbox saw it's chance to surpass the Gamecube's Worldwide sales. Halo 2 went on to sell more then 8 million copies worldwide on a system with a userbase of ~25 million, which is abnormally high that late in a consoles lifecycle and which I would attribute to it being the first truly high profile online console title. The temporary PS2 exclusive GTA San Andreas got ported to Xbox 6 months after it's innitial release but the Gamecube got overlooked. After that the Xbox had the 2nd place firmly in grip. Games like Resident evil 4 (2005 GoTY), Baten Kaitos, Tales of Symphonia and Geist coulnd't bring Nintendo's cube back in 2nd place due to stalled sales in Japan (it got stuck at 3.8 million and has eventually climbed to 4.1 in 2007). 2005 came and the Xbox 360 was released. Microsoft dropped the Xbox as a bomb and Nintendo's chance to take the 2nd spot in the 6th generation was still still there whilst Microsoft had opened the contest for the 7th gen. The swansong for the Gamecube, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess got pulled back to Q2 2006 and one of the last big 3th-party games for the Cube (Starcraft Ghost) got cancelled for the system. The game would eventually get cancelled across all systems but it for the time being it was planned as a Xbox and PS2 release. Leaving only Twilight Princess in combination with some B-games like Chibi Robo and Odama the PS2 had an open field of consumers to tap whilst the Xbox 360 had accesed the Hardcore market that was waiting for a stronger system. The xbox's sales died but the Software was still running. Itterations of Madden and Fifa 2006 were still outselling the Gamecube's versions whilst the Xbox wasn't even available in stores and it didn't look like the Gamecube was ever going to take that 2nd spot back. Then Zelda: Twilight Princess got annouced for Wii next to the Cube version and it was goodbye to the 2nd place for the 6th generation. Zelda Twilight Princess was however able to get the Gamecube's sales back to a level of 50-70k but the gap was too big. Xbox, as a newcomer, had taken the 2nd spot in t he 6th gen! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Week ending 16th November 2006:
Week ending 23th November 2006:
------------------------------------------------------------------ 6th Generation contenders in respective order: 1) PS2: ~120 million and climbing. 2) Xbox: ~25 million. 3) Gamecube: ~23 million. 4) Dreamcast: ~11 million. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sales of 3th party developers on PS2, Xbox and Gamecube to give you an idea on how things were going 6th gen: Total sales of Madden 2006: PS2: 3.84 million. Xbox: 1.44 million. Gamecube: 0.42 million. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Best selling game on every 6th generation platform: PS2: Grand theft auto: San andreas / 14.88 million. Xbox: Halo 2 / 8.41 million. Gamecube: Tie: Mario Kart: Double Dash / 6.60 million & Super Smash bros: Brawl / 6.58 million Dreamcast: Sonic adventure / 2.42 million.
Thankyou for reading my article, StarcraftManiac. |
Thanks for the article. Though some facts and dates (ok, technically dates ARE facts) are a little out of line but the overall insight seems sound. The real question now is how the hell did Nintendo get back into 1st place?
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