Fierce_LiNk Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 This is a follow-up from the other thread on this board about the GC being regarded as a failure by many. What exactly could Nintendo, or other parties, have done to help raise GC sales? I'll leave my own thoughts for later. I want to see what you guys have to say first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bard Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 They could have focused less on the mario sport titles and spin offs and started developing some new Ip's, I mean cmon, the game industry has developed a great deal, and I can't say that Nintendo has developed with it. Games that were sorely lacking on the Cube: FPS' and Fighters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro_Link Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Nintendo could have tried advertising!! (that un-tried, un-proven, new approach that it is!! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monopolyman Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Generally the same boring answers from the past. more 'mature' games, better advertising, more appeal to casual gamers. Also I think, and I could be standing alone here, the name 'Gamecube' put off many people buying it. I know I thought it was a terrible name when I first heard it, and there may be others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zell Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Nintendo could have tried advertising!! (that un-tried, un-proven, new approach that it is!! ) You sir are a genius! I think I've found the next Richard Branson... Seriously though... if they at least let the people know its still there then its going to sell at least a bit more... but you know nintendo and marketing, they don't really get along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariosmentor Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 They could have allowed nintendo salesmen to carry guns. But putting reality aside they could have marketed it a bit more, showing a contrast to the worldwide "kiddy" image it had everywhere because it was a major factor when you're main user base is 10 - 18 the most socially conscious pricks on the planet then a console comes out that your pals are saying is "gay" and "baby" its gonna put you off. So guns it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darksnowman Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I dont have many problems personally with the name GameCube, I think its better than adding a number like PS2 and now Xbox 360. I think its better to keep the names fresh and new - in keeping with the release of the fresh and new console. Many things contributed to this being a poor generation for Nintendo, what about this one though: the colour and design of the console itself? Im happy with a purple one (Im happy with being a Nintendo fan like and dont mind in the slightest them being different) but Im sure that that put plenty of people off. In my opinion it looks a bit naff anyway in black and even the platinum one didnt look so hot to me. No doubt however, as is being shown with Wii, the colours that people want (the blacks and platinums and whites) look good on something thats of sleek design - which the little Cube isnt. So what Im getting at is, even with all the non-GTA kiddy style that everyone loves to hate games that have been released maybe the public would have accepted them all a little easierif they had a console to play them on that they could have been a bit more proud of...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Dalco* Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 as people have already mentioned the name and the console design. also all the colours of the controllers buttons made it look very fisher price. Also nintendo should have advertised its more mature games a lot better e.g. Twin Snakes, MGS, Resi etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariosmentor Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I think it was less about marketing the games but re enforcing its image, everywhere you went there was a ps2 and a xbox but not a gamecube in sight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hero-of-Time Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 What Nintendo needed to do was appeal to the "casual" gamer. Although I love the Cubes design it did look a little childish especially the purple coloured console. Another major factor was the fact that the Cube was the last console on the market. Sure it was cheaper but by then the PS2 had got its foot in the door with many a 3rd party supporting them which leads to this... Third Party support was better than what it was on the N64 but Nintendo didnt pick DVD style format and opted for them mini discs thus alot of support dried up as it wasnt a simple job just to port a game. Sure it all started well but as the years went on more and more games got canned on the Cube but were getting a release on the Xbox and PS2. Lastly as it has been said many times is the way Nintendo markets their products, or doesnt as the case may be. Advertising does work wonders if done correctly and I think Nintendo are starting to wake up as seen by the DS adverts that are on channel 4 programmes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcj metroid Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 i dont believe the on line support would have had a massive impact on sales! ill summerise cause i think i went into detail on the other thread !)better launch than luigis mansion(third party line up was better than first party) 2)on line would have helped i suppose 3)the lack of demoes on gamecube was annoying 4)More interaction with third party developers from the west.But that seems to be improving anyway 5)a decent looking consoles thats not purple 6)New franchises.Nintendo litteraly made only ONE new franchise that wasnt on a console before and that was Pikmin.the wii already has more ill add more if i think of more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zell Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 From the intial tv adverts, i got the impression that the gamecube was massive anyway (having never actually laying eyes on one up until then) so the whole small and sleek design didnt really come across to everyone. Oh and why the handle? WHY? Did you expect me to carry it down the street? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hero-of-Time Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 From the intial tv adverts, i got the impression that the gamecube was massive anyway (having never actually laying eyes on one up until then) so the whole small and sleek design didnt really come across to everyone. Oh and why the handle? WHY? Did you expect me to carry it down the street? Funny you should mention that as me and my mate were talking about the exact same thing last week at work. There was just no need at all for that handle. We figured it was for using the Cube as a weapon against Chavs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue_Ninja0 Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Advertisement. At least on my country the only things that nintendo advertised were Pokémon and Nintendogs. No one knows what the F a gamecube is and what games it does have. Except pokemon and mario, because it is from nintendo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shino Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Advertisement. At least on my country the only things that nintendo advertised were Pokémon and Nintendogs. No one knows what the F a gamecube is and what games it does have. Except pokemon and mario, because it is from nintendo. It's sad because its true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurtle Squad Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Well, I think the biggest thing in the UK was Currys that and that gave up on it when it was doing more-or-less as well as the XBox. That and 3rd parties gave up on it too soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
immy Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Online would of been good and more third party support (not just dodgey ports) then this gen could of been alot better for nintendo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JammyJu Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 There wasnt really much they could do... i cant see why your all moaning about the look of the console, the xbox did better and look at the thing! I like my black Gamecube. Yeh advertising would've helped the amount of AC adverts on tv seemed of really helped, as its still in the top 10! Seems like nintendo are on the up! I dont think online was essential to be quite honest, the PS2's online is shabby at best, and thats a succesful console. More franchises needed eh?! Pikmin, metroid (well it was trasformed fantastically to 3D), battalion wars, chibi-robo, odama, Monkey ball and more. I think their top games could've been improved. Games like Sunshine wernt very gorund-breaking, quality gaming but it lacked some magic. Same with mario kart. But if they carry on producing games like smash bros and the like theres no wrong they can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierce_LiNk Posted June 16, 2006 Author Share Posted June 16, 2006 I think i'm ready to air my views now. Right at the start of the console's life, i believe Nintendo did everything right. They had a good lineup for their new console, they were advertising it well, and they had future games in the pipeline. All this took a turn for the worse. They 'stopped' advertising. I believe that maybe they rested on their laurels when they should have been on the offensive. I also believe that 3rd party ties have been better with the Cube since the N64 'dilemma'. However, things could have been much better. We had 5 exclusive titles from Capcom, but a lot of these (4 i think) were then released on Sony's PS2. Nintendo need to be more aggressive. They got the Resident Evil franchise to be Gamecube exclusive, and they should have capitalised on this by maybe 'forcing' Capcom to keep these other titles exclusive. I think the price of the console helped a lot. But, what good is the price if people don't know about it? They really needed to advertise the fact that this console was the cheapest next generation console. Drum it into the heads of the consumers that this console is cheap and good value for money. I don't think Nintendo did well in attracting the non-gamers. Animal crossing and Nintendogs for the DS got plenty of attention due to adverts. If they could've done this with the GC, then things could have been much, much different. I think if you look back over the history of the cube, there are some amazing games. But, we lacked certain genres of games. We could have done with more fighters, racers and shooters. Those 3 attract different types of consumers. With Wii, i hope Nintendo can offer us more variety with our games. Online gaming is a tricky situation. Nintendo have been saying that they want it to be free, and i don't think this was possible with the Gamecube. You needed to buy a broadband adapter for a start, and then pay for subscriptions. This isn't ideal for most of us, who would prefer this to be free. I think they maybe did the right thing by holding it back for the DS. After all, more people have played using the Wi-Fi connection rather than Xboxlive, so the fact that its free has helped. Still, it would have been good if you could have played things like Melee, or F zero or mario kart online. That would have helped sales both software wise and hardware wise. Basically, if Nintendo had advertised more, kept better links with 3rd parties and had a larger variety of games for the gamecube, it could have been a lot different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshmellow Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 well as most people have said, nintendo needed way more advertising, the only advertisement i saw was for Luigis Mansion now that convinced me to buy only because i like Luigi and thought it was a cool commercial, but it was also kind of dull, as in not much adventureous, shooting dull. When i saw an xbox commercial it was very "alive" so to speak, and looked cool, so if Nintendo's very few commerials maybe looked better too and had better games like Melee up for advertising they might of done better.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierce_LiNk Posted June 17, 2006 Author Share Posted June 17, 2006 We've seen with the DS that advertising can do wonders. The DS has blitzed tv in terms of advertising. Watch channel 4 on a friday night and i swear that you will not be able to miss a DS advert. We need more of that with Wii. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshmellow Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 We need more of that with Wii. come to think of it, i wonder what the wii/ps3 commercials will be like... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
immy Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 We've seen with the DS that advertising can do wonders. The DS has blitzed tv in terms of advertising. Watch channel 4 on a friday night and i swear that you will not be able to miss a DS advert. We need more of that with Wii. Those adverts are s**t i mean have you seen the pheonix wright one, i nearly cried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nintenchris Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 They shouldnt have gone with the purple cube as the main colour... it sucked... they should have had silver along with the black on launch day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshmellow Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 just saw a ds lite commercial its pretty neat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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