Nintendo had lost a lot of people by sticking with cartridges for the N64.
Then it came out without DVD capabilities a year after the PS2 and Xbox, which had or could access DVD playback (The PS2 did it out of the box while the Xbox required an additional controller).

So the little purple lunchbox did not receive a lot of love.

Mike from Morgantown

No DVD, PS2 being very strong, and also marketing - like it or not, the Wii got where it is today because it became fashionable, it became the "hot item" to get, sorta like Apple products (iPhone and iPod come to mind). It also didn't have the different (and innovative) control scheme the Wii has, with games tailor made for it and super casual.

why are people saying that it was lack of a dvd player wii can't play dvd's either

i think it is because instead of using regular discs the gamecube used mini discs much like psp which uses umds.

I think there are several factors to account for the differences in cube verses wii sales not mentioned.

The Wii's price relative to it's competition at launch and the timing of that launch. It launched so far below the price of the competition at a time when the economy of the world was/is going to crap, which made it the default choice for anyone for whom money is a factor (basically everyone in a economy like this). The cube did not have these advantages.

The rest of the Wii sales are just Nintendo riding on the momentum of the wave it's competition let it create.

It has always bothered me that Smash Bros. Brawl has only sold marginally better than Melee did with the increased Wii sales.. maybe all the new Nintendo fans really are only interested in Wii Sports and Wii Fit.

Seems like it. Specially if you look at the sales of 3rd party "hardcore" exclusives, like No More Heroes, House of the Dead, Madworld, The Conduit... the Wii is a big success not because of the usual fans that love Nintendo and stuck with it through the years, but because of the casuals who like the Wii Sports and Wii Fit type of stuff.

Maybe because the xbox and ps2 offered a lot more.

The GameCube was competing for the same market the PS2 and Xbox were, the traditional market. By the time the GC launched the PS2 had a lot of advantage.

Er, what? The ps2 probably out did the GC by an order of magnitude, maybe 2.

This. Pus no real online support and pretty sad to think the current one for Wii is a massive upgrade for online.

Not to mention Nintendo confirmed it's then "kiddy" image with a console looking like a fisher price lunch box.

Wii looks elegant and sleek like an Apple product.

For those asking why is DVD so important when it's disabled in Wii and does fine.(btw Wii can play DVDs but it's disabled in software so Nintendo does not have to pay royalties)  Well back in 2000 DVD was fairly new and in Japan when PS2 launched turned Akrihabra from a bunch of game stores to a bunch of DVD selling stores(this also was a big nail in Dreamcasts coffin) best selling thing with PS2 was the DVD of the Matrix. DVD players were not standard yet by any means,VHS was still king...a 30 year old format.

Today everything has a DVD player and most people have more than one DVD player of some sort,but back in 2000-2001 not having one in a console was a big deal esp in Japan.