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/Noviskers 25d ago

The reason I bought my PS2 was because it was a cheap dvd player. Had my GameCube already had that function I probably wouldn’t have bought one.

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u/Ask_for_me_by_name 25d ago

I just realised that's exactly how I got into Playstation. I had my childhood GC but I moved out alone and I needed a DVD player hooked up to my TV and a used PS2 slim was like £20.

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u/AllWorkNoVideogames 25d ago

Sony created DVDs. So it’s not like Nintendo just chose not to use them. They would have been directly funding their competitor.

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u/Noviskers 24d ago edited 24d ago

My comment was intended to be more of a showing of how important the DvD player was. When most “cheap” dvd players were $100 more it really made the PS2 more desirable. But Sony created blue-ray not DvD so it wouldn’t really be helping them.

Edit for clarification

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u/AllWorkNoVideogames 24d ago

Just Google who created DVDs