Say Bye-bye to the Gamecube

[Heavie]

Nintendo officially pulls plug on GameCube? Source: A bevy of secondhand reports all linking back to a GameDaily interview.

What we heard: This week, NPD Funworld released its sales numbers for the first five weeks of 2007. Though the original Xbox was completely absent from the hardware list--further indicating the format is pushing up daisies--the GameCube was represented...barely. Even though the GC edition of Zelda sold more than 144,000 copies, just 34,000 GameCube units were sold during the month.

Well, it turns out there's a perfectly good explanation for the GameCube's spiraling numbers. GameDaily's interview was with none other than Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America's doyenne of publicity. With surprising frankness, she told the AOL-owned publication straight-out that Nintendo has officially pulled the plug on its perky purple box.

"Are we producing any more GameCubes? No," Kaplan said bluntly. "But do we have the inventory there for people to still purchase? Yes." She went on to also say that Nintendo is no longer developing any GameCube titles, which is tantamount to a deathblow for the first-party-game-dependent console.

"You're a core gamer; you wouldn't buy a GameCube. It's not aimed at you anymore," she continued. "But it's still a great starter system because of all the great games."

The official story: Though anything coming from the head of NOA PR is pretty much as official as it gets, the Mario factory's external publicity agency could not confirm Kaplan's comments as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus, unless GameDaily issues one of the biggest retractions in game-news history.

Category: Bulletin
Posted by thorsen-ink, Feb 22, 2007 12:03 pm PT

 

[JoeSp]

Can you play Gamecube games on the Wii? Reason I ask is my nephew has a Gamecube and I guess I will have to help get him a Wii if the Gamecube has tanked.

 

[Heavie]

Can you play Gamecube games on the Wii? Reason I ask is my nephew has a Gamecube and I guess I will have to help get him a Wii if the Gamecube has tanked.

Yes, you can play them. Also the wii has 4 gamecube controller ports that will allow you to plug in 4 gamecube controllers, like a gamecube.

 

[Derwin0]

Considering that the Wii pretty much has a Gamecube built in, I don't blame Nintendo for killing production.

 

[s8ist]

Most of the games that come out for the Wii still look like GC titles, so I'm pretty annoyed that they've moved some great titles to the Wii solely for implementing the control scheme.
The whole lineup looks like it's been wiped [IGN reported Vaporware on some key first and third party software].

I know everyone's buying into the big N right now that the Wii is very popular, but I'm getting very irritated with them. GC players are a loyal bunch that are getting crapped on. There's no excuse considering that the PS2 is going strong, and the GC would have continued business in other countries that aren't early adopters.

 

[IcEWoLF]

You can't complain about that, the wii is cheap and gamecube is last gen...they don't want to spend anymore money on the old system, instead they are trying to make something nice for their new console.

 

[s8ist]

their new system:

a system that is pretty much still last gen with exception to it's external design, play mechanics, and wi-fi.

Despite the lack of titles supporting it, the original Xbox still had the capability of displaying 720p.

The new Wii titles so far, look about on par with Xbox1 and GC.

Nintendo ported key titles to this year's GC lineup to the Wii. The Wii wouldn't be missing out since it's fully backward compatible, and having a simultaneous release of two versions would hurt them either. I wasn't thrilled with the Wiimote implementation on Twilight Princess and overall I would have preferred to play the game on the original GC since the graphics didn't look that much better either.

Overall, I'm not all that thrilled with the Wii, even though I've been a loyalist of Nintendo's for a long time. GC was the great underdog of the last console war, with unique titles, great graphics, and an impressive performance. While the unique title aspect is the major draw of all N's products, the other two were also indicators of their commitment to delivering an excellent all-around product. It seems that commitment has slipped with the Wii.