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Editorials   Is Gamecube Nintendo's Last Console - Clarified
- By Francis Bonnet

Well, seems like my recent post entitled "Is Gamecube Nintendo's Last Console" caused some rumblings among my fellow staffers. I just want to clarify a few things before I get anymore death threats from Lander and Kevlar Gorilla (heh heh). The main point of the editorial was only that it’s a possibility that Nintendo will stop making consoles after the Gamecube, not a probability. Most likely Nintendo is going to continue to manufacture consoles well beyond the Gamecube, so don’t doubt for a second that Nintendo is done for. However, I wanted readers to know that Nintendo isn’t top of the heap anymore and they’ve suffered through a lot in the last few years. Remember, during the early 1990’s, Nintendo controlled 90% of the market in Japan. However, after the release of the Nintendo 64, Nintendo’s console percentage went way down to 16%. This is quite an embarrassment, especially in Nintendo’s home country. Finally when the Gamecube was released in the east, it too also met with sluggish sales even though Nintendo did so much to correct the errors it made with the N64. And of course (I always love mentioning this), Xbox isn’t even a factor in Japan since even the PSone is selling more consoles than Microsoft’s little failure.

I can’t stress enough that Nintendo doesn’t have the lowest sales worldwide and they are still holding the #2 spot. But keep in mind that Microsoft is going to continue to push their console, which could very well knock Nintendo down to 3rd place. Microsoft’s got $40 billion in the bank. Compared to Nintendo’s $7.25 billion, that’s quite a gap. You can bet that Microsoft will do everything it can with its dirty money to make Xbox the video game console of “choice” much like they made Windows the PC operating system of “choice”. If Gamecube doesn’t reach a userbase of at least 20 million worldwide, it’s a possibility that the console business could prove to be too unprofitable for them to continue, and rising development costs heavily contribute to that factor. It now averages around $8 million to develop a game from start to finish, and sometimes that doesn’t even include the cost of advertising the finished product.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that Nintendo needs to get their head out of the clouds. This isn’t the NES era anymore. Things are different and their consoles aren’t the only ones on the market; gamers will flock to whichever system offers them the most and are no longer loyal to just one company. Personally, I could care less about online games. However, Nintendo needs to have that as an option, mainly for competitive purposes. This holiday season Microsoft and Sony are going to promote their handful of exclusive online titles. If gamers looking for a new system to purchase see that both PS2 and Xbox both support online games and Gamecube doesn’t, it makes Nintendo’s little cube look less attractive. Right now Nintendo has only one online game available (Phantasy Star Online) and it’s not even developed by them. That’s a poor excuse for an online strategy and is definitely making those Sony and Microsoft fanboys giggle in their seats.

Despite Nintendo’s mistakes, they have always managed to make the best games. All I want is to see Nintendo in the #1 spot again and they have to overcome great strides to do so. Again, Nintendo isn’t failing with the Gamecube, but it’s not as successful as they would have liked - or as they predicted - and the sales figures show it. Sure, Gameboy Advance is doing great; it’s even outselling the PS2 in Japan. So why can’t the Gamecube do the same? Guess we’ll have to continue to wait and see…

Update: Well, turns out that Nintendo denied rumors of going 3rd party so this series of editorials has become obsolete. And that's great news! Even though my worries have been put to bed for now, I still stand by my points and believe that Nintendo still needs minor improvements in order to become more successful. Thankfully, their recent announcement, which touched on the fact that they'll be marketing the Gamecube more towards the older crowd is a step in the right direction!