Why do some people say the Game Cube was a failure? To be completely honest there are a few reasons why people thought the game cube was a failure (and it kind of was – it isn’t around any more is it?) Well, I take that back a bit because the game did lead to other, very popular games being developed and it did hold its ground for quite some time – but that’s beside the point. The major reasons why the Gamecube was a failure were bad timing and competition – 2 things that are very important in the tech industry. Nintendo released the Gamecube around the same time that the PS2 and Xbox were released resulting in competition that eventually resulted in the Gamecube dying out (kind of).
That isn’t to say the Gamecube wasn’t a success, just to say that it wasn’t as successful as it’s competitors.
Ex. this is how many units of each popular gaming system were sold in the first 5 years.
PS2: 100 million units (PlayStation 2 sales – Wikipedia)
XBox: 24 millions units (Xbox | Video Game Sales Wiki | Fandom)
GameCube: 2.92 Million (Nintendo console sales 1997-2021 | Statista)
- It relied way too heavily on first party publications: The issue with the over-reliance of first party publications is that gamers really did like to have a bit of variety in their game choices. Since Nintendo was the person (company) making most of their games (and they weren’t bad either) they ended up making games that were very similar to one another.
- It didn’t have any online interactivity: While online gaming didn’t appear to have taken off when the game was created but the other big 2 game creators did have begin to start supporting online interactivity – another huge reason the Gamecube started taking blows in sales.
- It didn’t have very good launch titles: Nintendo was known for their release of Mario games. Which is one of the things that actually helped sell each of their systems (because they paired each Mario game with their systems). With the Gamecube they didn’t have a Mario game prepared, rather they had Luigi’s Mansion prepared. While Luigi’s Mansion was a great game it didn’t have the appeal that Mario did. Not only that but the game didn’t have a whole lot of adult appeal which severely chopped into their system sales.
- There were fewer rareware: With Microsoft’s acquisition of Rare, there were basically no more insanely interesting titles being made for Nintendo by them. Basically, all of the gamers who played Nintendo because of their association with Nintendo.
- Microdisks: When the gamecube first came out it first used optical discs for it’s media format. When the PS1 came out they used CD-Rom drive so they could overshadow the N64’s carts. Then, the PS2 was released with DVD capabilities. Basically, the smaller the discs for a game are the less storage it has.
- There were missing genre: There was just an utter lack of RPGs while Sony and Microsoft were having their way with various RPG subgenres such as western with Xbox and JRPG with Sony.
- The controller was iffy: So, the gamecube controller was designed to allow players to be good at Smash Bros. – that’s it. It did work for other games but it just wasn’t great for other games. The controller didn’t have a true second analog stick. The game didn’t have a second shoulder button either and simply didn’t look as sleek as the Xbox or Playstation’s remote.
- People thought the system was for kids: To put it simply, other consoles were viewed as being made for mature audiences while the Gamecube and it’s release of the Nintendo 64 was a child’s game to put it simply.
- It was viewed as being a toy: How do you plan on playing MA video games on a game system that looks like it’s designed for kids? Well, the game was basically a cube that fell victim to what we know as Opposing Advertising. People just couldn’t take the game very seriously because of the way it was designed – they thought of it as being a toy. Not only was the system itself seen as being child like but it also but the controller was also colorful and didn’t look as mature as other consoles remotes did.
- It didn’t have a dvd player: As a person who once owned a Gamecube I would say that the fact that the GameCube didn’t have a DVD player really did hurt the system. Why, aside from my own opinion did the Gamecube die? Well, there was the PS2 and the Xbox, each of which was fitted with it’s DVD player (not a standalone DVD player just a disc slot that works with DVD’s as well).
Conclusion
Here is a list of highly viable reasons why the Gamecube, a square game system made by Nintendo was unable to survive attacks by other, larger game producers.
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