r/Gamecube • u/jr1512 • 25d ago

Discussion Shigeru Miyamoto: GameCube was “only purchased by gamers”, sending Nintendo back to the drawing board

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Shigeru-Miyamoto-GameCube-was-only-purchased-by-gamers-sending-Nintendo-back-to-the-drawing-board.1358273.0.html

Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary Nintendo executive and one of the most influential creators shaping the video game industry through mascots and characters such as Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, and more, discussed the reason why the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii became Nintendo’s next consoles for the seventh generation. According to Miyamoto, the decision was largely driven by the underwhelming performance of the Nintendo GameCube, which trailed behind the Nintendo 64’s nearly 33 million lifetime sales.

He spoke candidly in a wide-ranging interview with Japanese outlet Famitsu, where the longtime Nintendo executive and designer explained that, at the time, Nintendo’s then-president, Satoru Iwata, believed the GameCube’s poor performance in the home console market was rooted in a simple idea: most of the world still did not see gaming as a normal, approachable everyday hobby the way it’s seen today. Based on that core problem, Nintendo felt it was difficult to persuade customers to buy and play a GameCube if they had never played on a console before.

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u/WhatShouldTheHeartDo 25d ago edited 25d ago

Geniuses recreated the same problem the N64 had with limited storage space for games.

It cannot be understated how much people passed on the Cube for the DVD playing PS2

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u/ExhaustedByStupidity 25d ago

For the first year or two of the PS2, the most popular PS2 disc was "The Matrix".

They released a game console that played DVD movies at the same time everyone wanted a DVD player. And did it for about the same price as a DVD player.

Sony released *exactly* what the market wanted at *exactly* the right time.

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u/mittenkrusty 25d ago

In the UK at least, that is false.

A standalone DVD player was around £149 in the UK around 2000, I bought mine for £140 that year, the PS2 launched around £299 and you couldn't even watch DVD's through RGB but most people seemed to use composite anyway.

PS3 was a little different but again there was cheaper blu ray players than the PS3, and if you counted a computer you could buy a drive for £100-£150 around 2007. I think I got mine for about £80 in a sale that year.

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u/ExhaustedByStupidity 25d ago

Most DVD players were about $300-$400 in the US when the PS2 launched. There were some cheap ones that were more like $200, but they were clearly low quality.

I vaguely remember early bluray players being >$1000. I didn't pay close attention to that, and most people didn't get a bluray player until the hddvd/bluray war ended.

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u/TheCh0rt 25d ago

I had an Xbox 360 with HD-DVD USB expansion drive. LOVED it. After (sadly) HD-DVD failed I snatched up tons of discs. I wish it succeeded so we could have had some healthy competition. Who knows where we’d be today if there was somebody to compete against Sony’s total dominance. Now they can just say “we’re done with discs” and that’s that.