To try to answer the ops question better. During the 6th gen Nintendo didn't really have games that had big names for themselves. Sure, they had Mario (but I believe Mario was going through a downturn in popularity that really didn't start to come back until the Mario Pepsi commercial). Also, the N64 was viewed as a disaster by quite a few and it hurt Nintendo's reputation at least with console fans.

The big names in gaming in the 6th gen were mainly on the other consoles -- the ps2 library, Halo, Splinter Cell (more associated with the xbox brand than other consoles), DoA and Ninja Gaiden, and Kotor.

So, why do I think PS3 will do better in regards to the Gamecube at a lower price? It features blu-ray that a lot of people want and they've shown that they can have better luck with Western third parties than Nintendo did in the sixth gen and really in this gen too (with several big titles being on PS3 that haven't made it to Wii -- Orange Box, Morrowind, Fallout 3, Modern Warfare games), plus the Sony's western first or second party games seem to be more numerous if not more known than similar games from Nintendo in the sixth gen.). I think Little Big Planet, Uncharted, Ratchet, Killzone, and the rest together occupy more mindshare among gamers than Metroid Prime alone was able to do.

I originally bought a gamecube and stopped playing it and traded it in for an xbox that gen. Papermario was the only game I actually did not care for (mostly because it was a carbon copy of the same game off the 64). Not enough core games that would keep me preoccupied while my brother got two hit games a week on his PS2 (that was a rough generation for any Nintendo fan IMO).

I was a 100% PC gamer back then, but should I have decided to buy a console, I'd have given GC a try before deciding, as I only tried PSOne, PS2 and XBox, and I wasn't persuaded by them (I started supporting Sony only as a barrier against another MS monopoly back in XB1 times, then I hoped PS3 could become also an easy, cheap and MS-free PC, but too little, unexpandable RAM prevented it). Right now I'm attracted by some PS3 exclusives, but they are too few to buy it, while OTOH Wii could be a perfect complement for a PC gamer, as soon as it drops under 130-140€ I'll start considering it.

I never bought a GC because last generation I wasn't really big on games. Then my friends introduced me to xbox and that's what I ended up buying and bought like 12 games and only finished Halo 1 and 2.

My Gamecube came duck-taped to my Wii :)

Last gen I had a PS2 and a PC. I really saw no need to get another console as the sheer number of quality games I could play was already mind-boggling. There really were no games on the Gamecube that would warrant me buying one.

Bought it for $199 with Wave Race and Star Wars. It's still an awesome, awesome console. I'm still buying games for it!

I didn't buy a GCN because santa claus got one for me.

Smart Ass