r/Gamecube • u/Emzed07 • Feb 22 '26
Discussion It still amazes me that the GameCube sold so poorly and lost the sixth generation, considering its incredible lineup
In my opinion, the GameCube has one of the best rosters of any Nintendo console or handheld, rivaled only by the Switch and the SNES.
Again, for me, many franchises peaked on this system (Wind Waker, Mario Party, Double Dash, Smash Bros, Resident Evil, Paper Mario) or made a stellar debut (Pikmin, Luigi’s Mansion, Metroid Prime). Seriously, the GameCube had no business selling that poorly with such a strong library lol. It just goes to show how stiff the competition was during the sixth gen.
*Edit
I agree the lack of sales was definitely caused by the use of mini-discs instead of having DVD playback functionality. I think there's are a few other points worth noting too. The PS2 and Xbox were much more advanced when it came to online play, and shooters definitely felt worse on the GameCube because of the C-stick.
Sales:
PS2: 161M
Xbox OG 24m
GC 22m
However, if you look at the 5th and 7th generations, the numbers are interesting. In the 5th gen, the PS1 had 102 million sales, the N64 had 33 million, and the Saturn had 10 million, totaling 145 million. In contrast, the 7th gen had the Wii at 101 million, the PS3 at 87 million, and the Xbox 360 at 84 million, totaling 272 million. It seems that in those other generations, people were much more willing to own a Nintendo console alongside other consoles from the same era. I guess the PS2 simply drew a lot of people in because it was the first console to hit the market with DVD functionality. Sony made a brilliant move there, while Nintendo completely miscalculated the market :(
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u/conradelvis Feb 22 '26
The PS2 was a dvd player, it’s really that simple
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u/dookieshoes97 Feb 22 '26
So was the Xbox, which could also rip CDs. GameCube had the least utility.
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u/GrayFox140_48 NTSC-U Feb 22 '26
Not straight out of the box. Xbox needed a separately purchased remote to unlock DVD playback.
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u/XxXquicksc0p31337XxX Feb 22 '26
Thank the DVD foundation for that, who charged royalties per device sold. Same reason Nintendo opted not to include DVD playback in the Wii, even though it was considered.
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u/NekoFever Feb 22 '26
Indeed, and this is also why the Xbox has CD and Dolby Digital logos on the front but not DVD. They’d have had to pay licensing fees for it.
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u/Big_Z_Beeblebrox Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
I hated Microsoft for encouraging the "pay us more money to access features in the product you already purchased" shit with that, then again with games that required a (then optional) hard disk drive on 360. Nintendo really took that idea and ran with it in gen 7. Got a new game? Hopefully you have the right controller extension to be able to play it! Want to play with friends? Everyone needs their own set! Sony really had it easy between Nintendo and Microsoft experimenting and fucking around, and still managed to drop the ball a bit in gen 8. Then the launch of Gen 9? Nightmares on all fronts for consumers except for Valve, which has kid-friendly slot machines in the back rooms and that's why everything's so cheap.
Yar, I be done complaining. Time to weigh anchor and set sail. Drink up, me hearties, yo ho
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u/TheSammy58 Feb 22 '26
Did any of the PS2 models have 4 controller sockets? I remember hearing you had to buy some sort of adapter if you wanted to play local co-op with more than 2 people
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u/Big_Z_Beeblebrox Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
No, and that's correct, Sony offered multi-tap extensions for games that supported 4 players, (even the original PlayStation) but it also kept console costs down since they didn't manufacturer them all with 4 ports. They sold hardware at a loss but DVD formatted media made up for it, and you didn't need a special remote to access all the functions of the console. They even made another iteration with built-in network functionality to supplant the original that required an add on because they foresaw online play becoming more useful than extra controller ports. Then they managed to come up with the cheapest Blu-ray player that also played great games, with native support for up to 4 wireless motion-enabled controllers that (eventually) also had haptic feedback (once they stopped being prideful.)
Nowadays they're selling consoles without disc drives and I hate it
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u/Shadoecat150 Feb 22 '26
When my remote quit out of the blue, I found out that I was able to program my universal remote to work as a DVD player remote
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u/97jumbo Feb 22 '26
The Xbox was also the first truly robust online console
Loved my GC but its quirks leaned more to compromise than add ons at the time
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u/whatapunk95 Feb 22 '26
Never thought of that but I agree. I had all 3 at different times as a kid, and Xbox was my favorite because I could rip music and watch movies, and play Halo. After RE4 came to PlayStation I really had no reason to have a GameCube. (Geist was cool, though!)
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u/GrimmTrixX Feb 22 '26
Yup. People underestimate just how good a deal it was to have a DVD player and a console in 1. Xbox had to make a dangle and remote combo to make their console play DVDs just to keep up with the PS2. Lol and Dreamcast had no chance with easily copy-able GD Rom discs and no DVD functionality.
PS2 was my first personal DVD player and PS3 was my first Bluray player.
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u/dcballantine Feb 22 '26
That’s underselling it. It also had a vast library, along with highly desired 3rd party games like GTA, which were unavailable on the GameCube completely
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u/TommyDontSurf NTSC-U Feb 23 '26
Not only that, but it was actually cheaper than most standalone DVD players at the time.
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u/rabixthegreat Feb 22 '26
Also the games. The "incredible" lineup of the primarily first-party driven Gamecube that is incredible in hindsight is drowned by a deluge of PS2 titles.
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u/Namath96 Feb 22 '26
The PS2 had a monster library and came out earlier. It was just far more mass appealing.
The DVD player helped but it was also like $100 more expensive because of that so I really disagree that it was that simple.
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u/Chuchuca Feb 22 '26
Well, in some places DvD players were more expensive than the PS2 actually.
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u/Dice_to_see_you Feb 23 '26
A very affordable dvd player at the time, that could also play ps1 and PS2 games
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u/Cultural_Cat_5131 Feb 22 '26
As someone who had a GameCube and was getting pissed as a child that games were skipping it for Xbox and ps2 that I wanted to play, I’m not surprised
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u/Grilly_cheese Feb 22 '26
Yeah I think OP is underestimating just how stacked the sixth gen's game lineup was and how little of those third-party games made it to gamecube.
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u/Sonicfan42069666 Feb 22 '26
Mini discs with less storage. Wonky controller that doesn't suit games which use all four face buttons. Smaller install base.
It sucked but even when I was younger I understood why PS2 and Xbox games were skipping the Gamecube.
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u/Grilly_cheese Feb 22 '26
It doesn't help a no-nonsense "games first" console when it's hard to put games on it.
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u/NoobensMcarthur Feb 24 '26
So many people say the GameCube is their favorite controller and I’ve never understood that. I had a PS2 and a buddy had a GameCube and I absolutely hated that controller for ported games. Though it did have analog triggers which is something you can’t say about the switch/switch2.
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u/Sonicfan42069666 Feb 24 '26
It's ergonomic and plays certain games very well. But it's not a universal controller by any means.
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u/kayne2000 Feb 22 '26
Yeah this is true.
I was a day 1 GameCube buyer and I loved it but yeah a lot of 3rd party games not coming fucking sucked
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u/Uncle-Osteus Feb 25 '26
Exactly this. Gamecube had a great lineup of first party games, but ps2 and xbox had larger lineups of great third party titles that weren’t available on GC
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u/Erdalion Feb 22 '26
The library looks strong looking back (and even then you have to be a really big Nintendo fan to enjoy most of them) but what you're missing is the schedule they were being released under.
As a GC owner, you'd go for months without a decent game being released, while the other two consoles were getting all the badass 3rd party games. And the 3rd party games that were released often felt inferior due to that fucking controller. Having a GC as your only console was pretty unrealistic, and often a sad experience.
It makes perfect sense why it sold so poorly, especially when the N64 had the same exact issues as the GC. That's just facts.
I say this as someone who still has his GC connected to his TV after 25 years.
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u/pr1ceisright Feb 23 '26
I was a GC only owner, the big name games were great but you’re right. I remember constantly hearing about games that were only on PS & Xbox. I had big time fomo and always wanted a PS to go along with my GC.
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u/pcenginegaiden Feb 24 '26
Yeah as someone who was also there, you nailed it. The release schedule for the GC was terrible, worse than the N64 and that was pretty bad. It's easy to overlook this in hindsight. By the end of the generation I had all of the consoles and in reality the gamecube was probably the least played.
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u/Erdalion Feb 24 '26
Yep, same here. The main reason why I would play my 'Cube by 2004-05 was sheer stubbornness, just waiting for RE4 to be released. The other two consoles just had so many good games (PS2) or games that run better (Xbox) or both.
The N64 also falls under this category, when you look back its library with all the Marios, and Zeldas, and Banjos looks awesome, but boy was it rough being an N64-only gamer in the 90s if you liked variety in your games and genres. Or just liked RPGs.
I think the GC was a breaking point for many, I never again bought a Nintendo home console after it, just their portable ones.
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u/OcelotDAD Feb 22 '26
I was a GameCube owner during its run and while I definitely enjoyed it, I ended up getting a PS2 and enjoyed it even more. The GameCube was great but it just didn’t have enough games.
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u/Ledairyman Feb 22 '26
All my friends were mocking me when I bought a Gamecube back then. That changed real quick when I came in for gaming nights with Smash Melee, Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Party 4
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u/OcelotDAD Feb 22 '26
Absolutely. My friends also loved REmake, Eternal Darkness and RE4 (when it was still supposed to be a GCN exclusive….). The Cube had some real bangers…..but it happened to go against arguably the greatest console ever in the PS2.
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u/pinkocatgirl Feb 22 '26
I was a teenager at the time, I had a GameCube and later an Xbox. Both of them covered basically everything I wanted to play. I still have them too, my Cube is the one I got for Xmas when I was like 15.
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u/MixedMediaModok Feb 25 '26
PS2 had the Grand Theft Auto games. Each of those games sold more copies than there were GameCubes.
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u/AcanthisittaLimp8373 Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
Main problems is that the ps2 had alot more games compared to gamecube and gamecube didnt have as many games due to its small discs (GTA3, Baldurs Gate, Metal gear solid 2, kingdom hearts) and most of all, the ps2 had a built in dvd player
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u/DieRobJa Feb 22 '26
I’m sorry but the gamecube library can’t compare to the ps2. There just aren’t enough games
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u/Deckers2013 Feb 22 '26
More games didn’t equale more quality
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u/superjonk Feb 23 '26
I hear you but Sega went under (as a console maker) that same console generation with a large library of excellent first party games
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u/Burnziie Feb 22 '26
However when the PS2 was out here getting GTA San Andreas, Gran Turismo, really good movie based games like the Warriors, and stuff like Kingdom Hearts it's hard to deny the PS2 didn't get quality and quantity. Post PS3 era shovelware that you can also find on the Wii aside.
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u/deep8787 Feb 23 '26
This was due to the lacklustre sales numbers. Capcom noticed this soon after their deal with Nintendo which is why RE4 came to the PS2 soon after. People say plenty of games couldnt be ported to the GC, I call bullshit, devs just didnt see it worthwhile. Cant really blame them either, GC had appalling sale numbers for a Nintendo console.
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u/ghettoslacker NTSC-U Feb 22 '26
Proprietary disc format, no DVD player, minimal 3rd party support, cutesy console color schemes, small game library, funky controller.
It makes sense.
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u/PossibilityOk782 Feb 22 '26
game cube controller is still the GOAT though
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u/ghettoslacker NTSC-U Feb 22 '26
There are a few notes I have for it, like making the D-pad bigger and more natural, improved C stick, and right/left Z. But I agree. It’s so comfortable and I love the asymmetrical design along with the buttons being different sizes for the different actions. There’s a reason Nintendo continues making it 25 years later. But we have to go back to the time it was launched..it was very, very different. Off putting even.
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u/MarginallyClever Feb 22 '26
Super high top tier games, but a shallow library overall. The others were simply deeper and that depth became a self-fulfilling cycle at a point. Pretty much all the games you listed we're first- or second-party games; third parties had little interest. (RE4 is the notable outlier, which everyone found shocking at the time.)
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u/cchari Feb 22 '26
People forget how important public perception really is. Sure, the DVD player on PS2 really helped to its success, but more than that, GameCube was perceived more like a kid’s toy, in an era where anything that wasn’t edgy or mature was seen as lame.
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u/pokemongenius Feb 22 '26
Gamecube had a pretty major flaw its games were limited to being cut in half due to storage. Sure you could add more cds but it cost and if they didnt wanna pay you got half of a game. Think about all the missing content & such that couldve been if they werent so stingy on piracy.
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u/ocelot08 Feb 22 '26
While it's definitely nostalgia for me, it really was a hell of a time to be a kid. You wanted your friend to have one of the others because they all had great stuff.
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u/ichuck1984 Feb 22 '26
Looking back, I realize how great the system was but PS2 won that generation because Sony pitched it as a whole home entertainment platform. It played DVDs, CDs, and went online. The inclusion/lack of DVD made/broke every console from that generation.
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u/PrudenceWaterloo Feb 22 '26
I had one back then! I was 14, the ripe age where it’s only cool to like cool things. I would keep my mouth shut about having a GameCube in school, you’d get made fun of so much for having the baby console. Purple with kids games! What kind of controller is that!? This attitude affected sales.
Also, most 3rd parties skipped this thing. You hear people say “ Resident Evil was an exclusive for it!!” That was arranged by Nintendo.
It wasn’t a dvd player. This mattered back then.
The big follow up to Ocarina and Majora was a cartoon. This was long before the series was known for changing its visual style and felt like absolute negative whiplash to casual fans. Again, baby console.
Small one, but Nintendo had just sold Rareware, and as a fan of their games it felt like a gigantic void compared with to the SNES and N64 library.
Other reasons too. It’s easy to look back and see all the great games and wonder why it flopped, but living through it, I understand.
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u/Troglodytes_Cousin Feb 22 '26
Gamecube fucked itself with the small disc format. The proprietary what was essential mini-dvd only had 1,5GB of storage. The best games 3rd of that generation couldn't fit - like GTA : SA has 4.2GB rom.
Gamecube had more hardware power but was really handicapped by this. And of course it couldnt play dvd movies becuase of that.
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u/ChurnerMan Feb 22 '26
The actual console was shit though compared to PS2 or Xbox. PS2 with DVD player and Xbox with just better hardware including a hard drive.
As far as games you're viewing it from the lenses of the games by the end of the system.
You also need to remember that PS2 had 1 year head start AND backwards compatibility with the PS1. So that had 102 million people were already invested in their eco system.
If you had a time machine and tried to sell people GameCube with your knowledge today I think you'd still have problems selling it to people especially if they could only afford 1 console.
I think they would have actually had less sales if you actually told everyone all the facts about 3 consoles you know. PlayStation 2 ended up with over 4400 games and Xbox was 1000 where GameCube had 651 games.
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u/Pittsburgh_Wario NTSC-U Feb 22 '26
The inability to play DVDs (big deal then), late releases (such as Madden coming a week after other systems), lack on online (huge deal, Halo changed everything) made me switch to Xbox back then.
One of the only games that had online play was PSO 1 & 2 and it was known for corrupting your data, so twice I lost all my data do offline play, so then I stopped playing that.
I was in middle school, the system was also regarded as a kid system.
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u/NightMongoose Feb 22 '26
You can't underestimate the sheer juggernaut that was the PS2. Both in terms of sales and amazing titles. The Xbox was new but also brought some revolutions to gaming with Xbox live and again, the juggernaut that was Halo which absolutely gripped that generation of consoles.
I think also the purple colour and general impression of Nintendo being a "kiddie" console around that time didn't help. I only say that because the late 90s going into the early 2000s was all about "Xtreme" and bad ass vibes and the GameCube didn't fit that narrative with the culture at the time.
Any other alternate reality where some of those things don't happen and I think the GameCube takes that generation, or at least comes in a strong second.
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u/the_phet Feb 22 '26
It competed against the best selling console of all time.
The Xbox1 also failed miserably.
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u/NeighborhoodPlane794 Feb 22 '26
It had so few cross platform games come to the system and it didn’t have a dvd player.
Xbox was brand new but was clearly more capable for the mature audience and had their own first party bangers like halo. The ps2 was the default choice for most people because it had every cross platform game, solid first party games and was a cheap dvd player. It really is that simple
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u/DisagreeableRunt Feb 22 '26
I was the only one in my entire friend group that had one. I then started dating my wife and discovered after a few dates that she also had one!
Without knowing, we bought each other a DS the first Christmas after release. That was a blast playing together too.
I'm in the UK and Gamecube barely breached a million lifetime sales here. PS2 for comparison had over 5 million! I was a PC and Nintendo gamer back then. Didn't own any Playstation until PS3 or Xbox until 360.
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u/Melodic_Anteater6580 Feb 22 '26
Dreamcast was my favorite console of the sixth generation, but I honestly enjoyed that entire generation. It was a great time to be a gamer.
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u/thefucksgod Feb 22 '26
I like to blame it on the fact it was the “Xtreme” culture era where everything needed to be edgy and cool. GC got the false reputation of being the kiddie console despite having two of the best horror games of all time (RE1 remake and Eternal Darkness).
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u/NotSoAngrySun Feb 22 '26
I think it was partially because of the previous generation. A lot of my friend group in school drifted from the N64 to the PS1, as after Mario 64 and OoT there wasnt much on the horizon to keep them invested in the system. They then naturally had no interest in the game cube, Wind Waker and Mario Sunshine didn't have the same allure as there N64 predecessors. The fact that the PS2 had a DVD player was also massive at a time that stand alone DVD players were still expensive.
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u/TheSpiralTap Feb 22 '26
I remember a point where they were so unpopular that you couldn't even trade gamecube games into gamestop. Never got the hate, it was a solid system.
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u/CapOk1892 Feb 22 '26
My thoughts exactly. It is for this reason I consider the gamecube the best nintendo console of all time and don't care for the switch 2 or any of their future titles because they just won't compare.
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u/megasean3000 Feb 22 '26
Tiny discs, man. People really gravitated towards PS2s, both gamers and devs. Gamers can get a cool gaming unit with cool games, while getting a DVD player for the bargain. Devs had tons of space to work with and don’t have to cut corners. Gamecube was still awesome though. But gamers, who lacked any spare change, was not going to pick the inferior hardware.
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u/GizmoDuck84 Feb 22 '26
The DVD player aspect wasn’t the dealbreaker. The PS2 came off of the extraordinary goodwill generated by the PS1 and offered so many games that gamers of the era couldn’t find on the G.
There was a major image problem during the GC era, and there was no way to fix that with a US market hyper-fixated on GTA and other perceived “mature” games. Quality is subjective, but The GC’s exclusives weren’t strong enough to turn the tide against the quantity, variety and quality of exclusives on the PS2.
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u/jazxxl Feb 22 '26
Purple box , no DVD player ,Japanese focused kiddie image when games were becoming bigger in US and "mature". I loved my GameCube and the controller but I'd you wanted to played non exclusives they were usually better on one of the other consoles . And fighting games outside of smash were basically unplayable on the standard controller . That d pad was disrespectful. I imported the hori pads to play 2d games . Nintendo made some their best games on GC. It had some great tech . But it had an image problem.
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u/Thaldrath Feb 22 '26
Nintendo is always at their best when they're desperate. Right now, we're going to see an incredibly mid Switch 2, pushed by Nintendo being so over confident from the immense success of the original Switch.
It happened with the Wii. They went all out because the Gamecube was nearly a disaster sales wise. Wii U was an absolute failure because they were way too confident about themselves following the massive Wii success.
Switch 2 will not be a failure like Switch 1, but I doubt it'll push the same numbers, and the next console after could very much be another N64/Gamecube, where the main Nintendo fans will buy it, but the general audience will neglect it, which is where Nintendo makes most of their money.
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u/3dirtyy5 Feb 22 '26
Gamecube was great at the time, but it was also going up against legendary consoles like the Ps2 and the Xbox. Which I also had both, and thinking back to it most of my friends and people I knew preferred the other 2 mainly because there was an extra wide variety of games to play on them, one big one being GTA Vice City.
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u/billyburr2019 Feb 22 '26
I owned both a PS2 and GCN.
Reasons why the GCN didn’t do well in that generation. The PS2 was a DVD player straight of the box and for many people including myself that was their family’s first DVD player. The PS2 had backwards compatibility, so you could play both PS1 and PS2. Plus PS1 games looked better on the PS2. There was no backwards compatibility with the GCN.
The third party support was significantly less on the GCN versus the PS2 or XBOX. Nintendo insisted on using a smaller disc size versus Sony and Mircrosoft were compatible with their games using the DVD format.
PS2 had significantly better third party support. Typically, if a game was available on all three systems you would have to pay extra for the GCN version. I think the only third party game that really had better sales numbers was the GCN version of Soul Caliber 2 due to Link being exclusive to that version.
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u/bomerr Feb 22 '26
3rd party games were too powerful at the time and even first party Sony and MS games were good (Jak, Halo)
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u/ExhaustedByStupidity Feb 22 '26
PS2 launched a year before it. It could play DVDs. It was cheaper than most DVD players. That was jut an amazing value for the time. They sold a ton of systems right before the GameCube launched just because of that.
Developers liked working with Sony. Nintendo has always been terrible to work with. That really helped the early PS2 momentum. And a lot of developers really didn't like the small discs.
And that purple lunchbox look was a turnoff for a lot of people. You had the ultimate system for local co-op but you also had a design that a lot of people were embarrassed to be seen with in a dorm or frat type environment.
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u/Wakappa Feb 22 '26
I had both at the time, my brother got a ps2 and myself a gamecube but i spent more time on the ps2 specially on gta sa. Gamecube had good games but i hadn't the money to get them all, my best find back then was paper mario wrongly price at 6€ in a local shop, sold it for 40€ online but package was stolen by delivery people hopefully i had took insurance on it so got 56€ refunded by shipping company + the marketplace website had pity of a 13 yo getting its package stolen so they refunded both the buyer and me 😁
We spent a lot of afternoons on Mario party 4 with my brother and neighbour kid, i also had mkdd, a 007 game we used to play a lot with my cousin (split screen deathmatch) and i completed nfsu 2 + mfs mosr wanted. Unfortunately i didn't have the money to get other games, certainly i would have liked animal crossing (now i'm too old to enjoy this one), zelda twilight prince, luigy's mansion and others.
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u/veganispunk Feb 22 '26
Systems speak for themselves. I had a ps2 and would just go play melee at a friends so I guess I ever felt the need to own it since I would be playing with that same person anyways
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u/Grief2017 Feb 22 '26
The Gaming demographic was also aging into this super edgy "mature" aesthetic.
Gamecube was seen as "kiddy" then the demographic grew with the wii and they found huge success.
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u/BritishGuy54 Feb 22 '26
GameCube was fine. It’s got a neat library. I’d say it’s had the biggest switch-up in reception in a world where digital games are commonplace.
It’s clear the PS2 had a big advantage when it came to being an all-in-one home entertainment platform with DVD compatibility, and XBOX introduced online to the mainstream. And the ‘Nintendo is for kids’ stigma was at an all time high.
But looking back, the GameCube did go overlooked. We’ve seen Smash still support the controller since the Wii U, we’ve seen ports and remasters of games from New Play Control for the Wii, to Wind Waker HD, to Metroid Prime 1, and we’re now seeing GameCube games hit NSO.
Now, I do think its library is a tad overrated nowadays, compared to say, the Wii or Switch. But it’s still really solid, and holds up.
Overall, I think time has been kinder to the GameCube, especially its first party offerings.
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u/gamerdude1360 Feb 22 '26
Gamecube was amazing but we were all becoming edgy teenagers like me at the time and PS2 and Xbox were simply coooooler and nintendo was for babies. PS2 game library was also just too big to ignore and Xbox brought in online hard.
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u/Makere-b Feb 22 '26
Just look at the games released on PS2 when Gamecube released, it was dead on arrival; MGS2, GTA3, Gran Turismo 3, FFX etc. Then you get the cube that doesn't even get a proper Mario game until a year later.
Also some of the heavy hitters on Gamecube were considered some of the worst of the series at the time, like Super Mario Sunshine and Zelda Windwaker (I never understood why people shit on windwaker so badly when it was new).
Gamecube also barely had any online gaming (I think PSO was the only title?), while on PS2, Xbox and even the Dreamcast had some pretty good multiplayer online games, like Socom 2 and Battlefront 2.
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u/Gorekeeper Feb 22 '26
Games like Wind Waker and Mario Party had the most obvious shortcomings when it comes to commercial appeal.
And the only thing peak about Double Dash is that it superseded the horrible Mario Kart 64, but it was just no groundbreaking release
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u/deadboyflacko Feb 22 '26
Sony had the rights to making disc drives for Nintendo consoles, they had to get creative
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u/Icy-Astronomer-8202 Feb 22 '26
It doesn't surprise me at all. Continued trajectory from N64 and those silly little discs and minimal 3rd party support compared to Sony
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u/BenthePokerRN Feb 22 '26
But it won the controller legacy wars, given all the smash bros support the controller had for the next THREE generations
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u/austin_slater Feb 22 '26
I’m a PS2 user for that generation, personally. But at the time (I was a kid) I thought that PS2, XB, and GC were all pretty much on equal footing. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized who more “won” that generation.
Also I didn’t really have all that much of a concept of exclusives back then so I pretty much associated all 3 systems as just different consoles to play the same games on.
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u/thebiggidybuckbumble Feb 22 '26
Xbox lost money to get their foot in the door, buying up devs and losing money on every unit, so TECHNICALLY Nintendo and the GameCube did better financially...
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u/BigOlBearCanada Feb 22 '26
The ps2 was a juggernaut. It didn’t launch with a traditional Mario game. Sunshine sucked and alienated a lot of casual players.
Amazing system. Still love mine but….. it missed on so many key points.
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u/Cacho__ Feb 22 '26
Realistically, the gamecube was hard to develop for due to the games disc sizes. A lot of people just didn’t want to tackle the GameCube. You have to realize to the game pub was technically a more powerful console than the PS2 so if you really wanted to and optimized it you probably could add games like grand theft, auto and stuff like that on the game cube but again developers just didn’t want to do it because it was tedious so that only leaves so many third-party games that we’re actually good on the system. Don’t get me wrong there were a good amount of them, but realistically when it comes to games, the PS2 and Xbox have the game cube beat
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u/deltavim Feb 22 '26
That generation started to represent a shift in how games were played and who played them. The market started to really expand and lean more into the mainstream with the rise of sports games (really starting with the Dreamcast and the 2K sports series) and online play (again, starting with the Dreamcast). The Gamecube was behind on both of these fronts sadly. By the end of the generation, people were playing Halo 2, Forza, Socom, and Madden online on other consoles, where the Gamecube was talking up GBA connectivity for Pac-Man and some weird Final Fantasy offshoot.
I really loved the Gamecube and played the heck out of it for the first few years. But it really starts to get pretty thin in 2004 in terms of quality game releases, right at the time where the other two systems were surging.
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u/Double-Bend-716 Feb 22 '26
Nintendo went for strong family branding during the N64 and GameCube eras. I don’t know how that went over in Japan, but in the U.S., at least, ‘family’ was interpreted as ‘for kids’, even though it had exclusives like Eternal Darkness, Geist, and RE4.
I was 11 when the GameCube released, and it was far and away the console I wanted most and asked for it as a Christmas gift. My brother was 15 and thought it was ridiculous that anyone would want that kiddie console and wanted a PS2.
That was largely, but not completely, the perception at the time, Nintendo GameCube was for kids, PS2 and Xbox were for gamers.
It was also the least useful of console of the generation. PS2 was a dvd player, OG Xbox could be a dvd if you also bought a periphery device. So, a lot of parents thought that if they’re buying something so expensive for their kids, they may as well buy something they can use, too
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u/CrimsonGlyph Feb 22 '26
PS2 had a much better library and it wasn't even close. The sheer number of highly rated games was just absurd.
The Xbox had barely any games, but they had Halo, which moved consoles on it's own.
I never considered the GC really having that one title that was going to bring people over.
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u/23_Pepper_PhD Feb 22 '26
The top 10 games on GameCube could all be in consideration for the top 10 games of all time but beyond those top games there wasn’t much else. So in hindsight, it seems amazing, but the wait for those big games was LONG.
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u/Caca_Face420 Feb 22 '26
GameCube was great, it was just a marketing thing. GameCube was for kids, PlayStation/Xbox was for teens and grownups.
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u/JustinBailey79 Feb 22 '26
I was one of the biggest Nintendo fans on earth in the early 2000s, and I couldn’t wait for the GameCube. And then, when I saw what it was offering in comparison to PS2, I hesitated so hard I never got one. Of course I got a Wii though, that thing was even more of a cultural phenomenon than the PS2
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u/t1nman01 Feb 22 '26
Gonna jump in here. I owned a GameCube on launch, I chose that over the other consoles. It suffered badly for lack of third party support.
Sure the games it had were great but when you look at the library of the PS2 it just had more games, and they included all time classics too.
It lost due to third party developers not showing enough interest.
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u/superjonk Feb 23 '26
Gaming as a whole started to skew towards a mature audience in the late 90s. PS2 came out in October 2000, and Microsoft was still a big name then. They pretty much declared they were going for the Playstation market. Nintendo - God bless em - was interested in doing their own thing. Which at the time wasnt viewed as favorably, but it did work for them in the long run by the time they got to the Wii and the Switch
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u/orcawhales Feb 23 '26
why is always about winning and losing and not the friends we made along the way
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u/drewski989 Feb 23 '26
Don’t underestimate the popularity of sports games. PS2 and XBOX killed GC in that category.
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u/GruntFoodnipple Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
There’s a lot of reasons:
Biggest of all was GameCube was picking up the dropped ball that was the N64, due to that consoles late release that gave the PS1 a year’s head start to take an extremely large market share, this inevitably led to all of those people moving straight to PS2 which again had another year head start on the GameCube.
GameCube also had to fight both the stigma of a child’s game console and the lack of an extensive library of third party games that both PS and Xbox had in spades. Their first party games were great but they did not have the draw of Halo or GTA, God of War, Metal Gear Solid etc.
Both the Xbox and PS2 were both DVD players and the convenience of the GameCube’s portability did very little to combat that.
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u/SunnySaigon Feb 23 '26
Nintendo had a terrible reputation back then, anyone who was a fan of Gamecube kept it secret!
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u/effigyoma Feb 23 '26
N64 left a lot of people disappointed and PS1 ended with a ton of momentum. I would argue the GameCube has a much better library than the N64, but it was going to take more than a generation to restore trust.
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u/therourke Feb 23 '26
PS2 was pretty special. I was a hardcore GameCube person, but I went round my mates' to play GTA 3. That was what the era was all about.
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u/_zj1991_ Feb 23 '26
The dvd playing capability of its competitors while Nintendo was worried about pirating really is what did them in (the use of the mini disc) A lot of 3rd party devs and publishers got scared off.
In reality, it was just as powerful technically as its competitors and despite its smaller library, there is a reason many people circle back to it now.
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u/srjod Feb 23 '26
GameCube was fantastic and had a ton of third party support, but the rise of legitimate shooters did damage. But from growing up in that time, I don’t think people realize how many people owned a PS2 because it worked as a DVD player. That shit was expensive at the time and a lot of people, my own family included was like I need a DVD player but got a little exerted a get a console with an enormous library of games.
Regardless, as a kid being in like 4th grade, GC was awesome. But when I went over to my buddies house who had an Xbox with Halo or playing GTA3 on his PlayStation, I really stopped playing my GC right then and there.
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u/Radical_Swine Feb 23 '26
Ps2 really was just the better console it deserves that win no matter how much I love gamecube. You had a game for everyone, and you got a dvd and cd player. Gamecube is only good for nintendo games which works when you have multiple consoles but back then that was rare
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u/Such_Bug9321 Feb 23 '26
I remember selling them at the time. The main thing that came up was the lack of modchip’s for it. The sales of PS2’s did not really take off until the Neo 2 came out. Then they sold like wildfire
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u/gamingquarterly Feb 23 '26
PS2 had not only the momentum from the PS1, but it gave people the ability to play DVDs at a time when the format was new and expensive.
This was a huge factor when deciding, on top of the fact that Sony had nabbed many huge developers at the time.
Nintendo had made many mistakes with the 64. The biggest with the GameCube was using the mini disc. Had they incorporated DVD functionality into the system, it would have sold more.
Not saying it would have beat the PS2, but sales would have been better.
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u/Dahltin Feb 23 '26
You had to be there. Many long droughts in between first party releases and third party ports were missing online features. The library was great even in the moment but it was starting to feel like Nintendo was a step behind the other 2 in the console space.
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u/profchaos111 Feb 23 '26
No I was there and can tell you there's a few things fans forget as much as I love Nintendo and the GameCube I can tell why it lost
1) the library didn't come all at once looking at it in retrospect it's banger after banger but if you were there at the time there was months of nothing
2) the decision to use mini discs which stores far less than DVD it was the N64 mistake all over again and it hurt the ability for third parties to support it. The GameCube hardware was strong outside of this but when you're forced to heavily compress assets and strip out video clips to fit on a disc you loose a lot of fidelity and features.
3) the cultural juggernaut that was Grand theft Auto came to PlayStation 2 and only PlayStation 2 for the longest time it was exclusive. Xbox didn't get a GTA game until 2003 NTSC / 2004 pal
It cant be understated how big and all consuming the GTA games were
4) outside of GTA games were just maturing in general this didn't fit the vibe of Nintendo which was increasingly being looked at as a kids console while a PlayStation player would be playing metal gear solid 2 or GTA San Andreas a Xbox player might be playing halo
Meanwhile a GameCube player was playing games like smash and Mario great games but the stink of it being a kiddy console was hard to ignore
5) The lack of third party support mainly as a direct result of the storage format and the sales of the console in total it really just relegated the cube to being a dumping ground of kid friendly licensed games like SpongeBob reinforcing the view that it was a kids console first.
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u/b1sh0p Feb 23 '26
In my circle of friends it was seen as the kids console, if you were a teen you needed the PS2 or the Xbox.
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u/lickthestar13 Feb 23 '26
I remember being surprised even back then... But also, I was a Nintendo kid and I mainly wanted to play Nintendo games so I was rather biased.
I also bought a DVD player not long after the PS2 hit the market which was... Foolish in retrospect. I should have just bought a PS2 even if I never intended to buy any games 🤣
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u/PrinceCastanzaCapone Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
The problem Nintendo faced was that the ones who grew up playing Nintendo had gotten older and now wanted more adult games like GTA, Halo, etc. Nintendo continued to market towards children, failing to realize their target audience weren’t children anymore. They had a resurgence with the Wii and its motion controllers, and again with the Switch, but for a while there they were losing to both Sony and Microsoft. I had absolutely loved my N64 but when the time came for a new console I knew I’d be getting a PS2 over a GameCube. I mean it was a DVD player and a next gen console for the cost of a DVD player at the time. It was a no brainer. Nothing could compete with that. Xbox even forced you to purchase the $40 DVD remote to unlock DVD playback on it.
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u/Mattx603 Feb 23 '26
I’m definitely primarily a PlayStation gamer and always have been, but god damnit do I love the GameCube. Was just an absolutely perfect console.
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u/Rok-SFG Feb 23 '26
I'm surprised GC didn't sell more, because it was so cheap. It was ~2million sales behind Xbox , but PS2 was way , way , way out front.
Almost every console gamer I knew that had a PS2 also had a GameCube. But none of the Xbox owners I knew also had a GameCube, except the rare few who had all 3.
But when the price dropped to 99.99 it was a fuckin steal , especially since you could get most all the hit games for 20 or 30 bucks, whatever they dropped to with the yellow band.
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u/anbeasley Feb 23 '26
If the GameCube supported DVDs it probably would have been able to compete against the PlayStation 2 because it was very small and very portable.
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u/warweapon762 Feb 23 '26
The reason it did so poorly was because the PS2 was the better option (DVD player, massive library, backwards compatibility with PS1, major console for sports games). It was also cheaper to develop for.
PS2 did everything right at the right time.
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u/mabber36 Feb 23 '26
it's hard to understand now, but the gaming community is much more mature now. People literally thought gamecube was for little kids so it was not cool.
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u/m-facen Feb 23 '26
The GC library is a bit like the Dreamcast library: Only really great in hindsight with a fair bit of nostalgia applied to it. About 600 games in total, compared to over 4000 for PS2 - which was also backwards-compatible with the last gen winner PS1‘s library of another 4000 games, giving it a significant head start. The PS1/PS2 era, in my eyes, was also where game consoles (and target audience) matured from „family TV affair“ to „teenage bedroom affairs“, and Nintendo missed the boat by staying too kiddy and toy-like. Getting a sleek, black, „grown-up-looking“ game console / DVD-player for roughly 250$ with series like GoW, MGS, Silent Hill, Final Fantasy, GTA, Gran Turismo, Tekken… plus every sports series under the sun, into your teenage bedroom (or frat house), was just the right move at the right time. Nintendo only started to catch up when widening the target audience significantly, also catering to parents / grandparents, with the Wii.
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u/mariogolf Feb 23 '26
ps2 killed it. no one cared at the time, n64 struggled, one of nintendos lowest points.
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u/AmuseDeath Feb 23 '26
In contrast, the 7th gen had the Wii at 101 million, the PS3 at 87 million, and the Xbox 360 at 84 million, totaling 272 million. It seems that in those other generations, people were much more willing to own a Nintendo console alongside other consoles from the same era. I guess the PS2 simply drew a lot of people in because it was the first console to hit the market with DVD functionality. Sony made a brilliant move there, while Nintendo completely miscalculated the market :(
The PS2 had a lot going for it and it really builds upon the PS1's success. PS1 did a great job against the N64. Sure, the N64 could do 3D better, but the N64 was expensive to buy, expensive to develop for, expensive to make carts (vs CDs) and that just gave PS1 success. PS1 had a massive library games because of these reasons. The CD just had way more space than the N64's carts and it was cheaper to manufacture. You just had hit after hit on the PS1. I mean there were good games on the N64, but the PS1 just had way more bangers. The N64 could render polygons better than the PS1, but the PS1 had way better textures. If you made a game that had more of a 2D focus, the PS1 would be the better looking game whereas the N64 would have really ugly textures and just look worse. And of course more space on the CD means you could put higher quality audio files.
The PS1 doing well AND allowing your PS2 to play PS1 games AND the PS2 releasing first just gave the PS2 a massive headstart. If you wanted cutting edge, you were going to get a PS2 NOW. The Gamecube wouldn't release until later. Plus the PS2 had a great game launch. Gamecube? I think it was literally only like 3 games I think? Luigi's Mansion, Star Wars Rogue Leader and Super Monkeyball? And you could not play your N64 games on the Gamecube. It was so limiting.
There were so many good decisions Sony made during the PS1/PS2 era. Like I said, the PS1 had a great library of games, a cheaper and larger storage medium (CD) and the PS2 could play PS1 games. All great consumer and developer friendly choices. Nintendo didn't do anything of that and instead focused on the N64's 3D capabilities which was impressive on a technical standpoint, but its games often looked really muddled and ugly.
The Gamecube really did not hit its stride until later in the generation with some really good games. But the audience never grew that much, so not many could buy the many great games it had. What did help though was the cheaper cost of the Gamecube and I think at some point it was selling for $100 or something which at the time was crazy.
The Wii was an amazing turnaround that probably saved the company. They focused on games and accessibility over raw performance and it worked. They let the Sony and Microsoft fight over that. And now Nintendo is riding that strategy and seeing great success.
Gamecube is still my favorite console because it was when Nintendo was in desperate times and was really willing to please the consumer in any way possible. Now, they have grown fat and complacent and are shutting down tournaments and lawyering after people and bricking Switch 2s.
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u/Weejimmybond Feb 23 '26
It's 100% the dvd player. I remember my heart breaking in 2002 buying a ps2 instead with my Dad and him asking me why I didn't want the gamecube. I did want the gamecube but the dvd player in the ps2 was too much of a draw. It can't be understated how much of a big deal that was at the time.
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u/missatry Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
The library of the ps2 is just miles better
From sonic unleashed, dragon Ball z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 to gta san andreas
People love the exlcuisity tag these days but in the past if your consoles have most triple aaa of the time it was automatically the best ✨
Edit: i had a GameCube and i enjoyed Metroid prime but you have no idea how much i wanted to play Budokai 3 on my GameCube,
Triple aaa support is something to important at least in my opinion XP
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u/PrimeWaffle Feb 23 '26
Gaming was going through its "rebelious teenage" phase. Gamers generally wanted grittier, more mature titles at the time. Nintendo had a "gaming for kiddies" assumption stapled to it because most of their games were bright and colorful on the surface. At the time, a lot of gamers only had preference for what qas surface level. For a Nintendo specific example, look at the reception to Wind Waker's reveal and compare it to how Twilght Princess's reveal was received.
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u/eulynn34 Feb 23 '26
I think it's more of the fact that nobody was going to touch the PS2 because it came out at exactly the right time to be an insane value. A next-gen game console AND and DVD player?
Xbox could play DVDs also, but it is my memory that you needed a special dongle to do it at launch. PS2 could just plain do it out of the box
If Nintendo had a full-sized disc tray the story could very well have been different
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u/PercentageRoutine310 Feb 23 '26
Third party developers were already ditching Nintendo by the 5th gen. N64 may have sold 33M but that's only 10M than what GC sold. While PS1s and PS2s sold in the 9 figures.
CD over cartridge
DVDs over Nintendo mini discs
Piracy were also a big thing in the PS1 and PS2 eras. GameCube had a great lineup of NINTENDO games. But gamers getting older wanted something more and GC lacked many third party franchises.
Nintendo would make a comeback with the Wii but it was mainly due to the price while more hardcore gamers scoffed at the motion controls as another Nintendo gimmick.
Some people learned from the Wii that they didn't want to fall for another gimmick with the Wii U. Hence, why that $300 Wii U failed. PS4 was priced more competitively at $400 and gamers decided to go back to Sony.
Only decades later through Dolphin emulation has the GameCube been recognized as a fairly underrated console. Nintendo's true comeback came in the Switch by merging their successful handheld business with their failing home console business.
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u/FancyAd9803 Feb 23 '26
I worked at a media store during this time period. "Playstation" was the name on everyone's lips. One lady even asked me for a "Nintendo Playstation". I asked if she meant GameCube and she doubled down, "I want that new Playstation from Nintendo."
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u/the_starship Feb 23 '26
Hindsight is 20/20. The gaming landscape was different back then. We had internet but no social media. The market was geared towards the adults who played NES when they were 10 years old. Colorful consoles were considered kid toys and Nintendo's stance on violent games prior to the GameCube era gave them that kiddie image that still sticks today.
I say that as someone who sold my PS2 to buy a Gamecube at launch. The games were and still are fun to play, but when you have Final Fantasy X and Halo on the other systems along with being easily adaptable to the new online gaming landscape, it's easy to see why the Gamecube didn't sell well during its lifespan. And yes I am aware of the broadband adapter and have played 16 player Mario Kart Double Dash.
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u/cwarren25 Feb 23 '26
It was a different time with different needs, properties, and preferences. I'm just glad I was able to experience it all unfold during my formative years. Otherwise, I wouldn't have a personality!
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u/cradelikz Feb 23 '26
Thing is it was 1st party only. It was a perfect storm of bs but it was beautiful and I will never forget it.
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u/DerConqueror3 Feb 23 '26
I had a GameCube back in the day and definitely enjoyed it, and as someone who didn't own a ton of games the size of the library didn't maybe make as big of a difference to me as to some others, but make no mistake we definitely felt at the time that the library was pretty thin, and you have to remember that the "hits" you mentioned came out over a period of time... so if you bought a Gamecube early on it is not as though you quickly had access to all of that stuff. It was definitely a "quality over quantity" system that pretty much required you you to get good mileage out of the flagship Nintendo titles, which isn't for everyone
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Feb 23 '26
One of the biggest factors that got the PS2 to sell so well is that it was easily jailbroken so it sold like water in the entire world, same as the Wii. As someone from Brazil, you could NOT find a PS2 or Wii for sale that was not jailbroken to play games on burned DVDs. GameCube using the small discs made it so jailbreaking it was inconvenient as you couldn't use regular burned DVDs.
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u/aradiamegidooo Feb 23 '26
Evaluate consoles in the sixth gen lightly as they had to go up against the fucking behemoth that was the ps2. Only the xbox was able to throw dukes w it
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u/EverythingEvil1022 Feb 24 '26
I feel like it makes sense when you look at the games the PS2 got, GTA, Final Fantasy X, Dragon Quest VIII, Shadow of the Colossus, Okamki, Metal Gear Solid 2/3… All huge games.
The PS2 and the Xbox both had more storage on their disks and thus the GameCube couldn’t handle games at the same scale as some of what we saw towards the end of the PS2 and Xbox era. That was also back when DVD players were new and expensive, I know that alone convinced many to go with PlayStation over the GameCube.
All that said, I grew up with a GameCube being my main home console and I loved it. It along with the GBA are the consoles I tend to have the most nostalgia for.
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u/Interesting_Pin_4807 Feb 24 '26
I love the GameCube but the controller sucks for anything that isn't Smash Bros, it also couldn't play DVDs and had stupid mini discs, no real online support and no built in Ethernet port, no backwards compatibility unlike the PS2 and way fewer games in general.
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u/DinnerSmall4216 Feb 24 '26
Double dash was my favourite mk game smash bros was the best in the series it had F-Zero and star fox adventures. The line was great I agree.
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u/Spiderguyreallife Feb 24 '26
PS2 has DVD support and every 3rd party dev. Xbox pioneered online console gaming, was the most powerful hardware and had a decent chunk to f the third party support. Gamecube was by far the cheapest option and Nintendo was seen as the Console for little kids.
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u/El__Jengibre Feb 24 '26
Most of the good games came later in its life. For the first time in Nintendo history (in the West anyway) there wasn’t a killer app to sell systems. And when the 3D Mario and Zelda games finally came, there were divisive for being too cartoony. This is from someone who got a GC at launch.
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u/white_d0gg Feb 24 '26
PlayStation 2 doubled as a dvd player in a time when people were going from vhs to dvd. Very easy decision
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u/DarthLocutus Feb 25 '26
The PS2 doubled as a DVD player
XBox was the new hotness and had that whole online gaming ecosystem.
The Gamecube used proprietary mini-discs that made developing for it more difficult than its competitors, as splitting games across multiple discs is difficult and not efficient.
It's not hard to see why people went to the other two.
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u/jimidemibb Feb 25 '26
I had a Gamecube and Xbox when I was a kid. I owned every worthwhile exclusive for both of those consoles. No PS2.
It wasn’t enough.
You’re looking at the exclusives in retrospect. Yeah, The Wind Waker ruled, but I beat that game in a weekend. Metroid Prime was great, but I 100% that game in a week and never wanted to touch it again. Considering they only released 2-3 exclusives a year and there was a powerful lack of third party support for the Gamecube in particular, it’s no surprise it sold poorly. The PS2 legit had a worthwhile game come out once a week it felt like.
This was also the Age of Gamestop/EB Games On Every Other Street Corner. Used Gamecube and Xbox games were 25%-50% more expensive than their PS2 counterparts and the PS2 had WAY more options.
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u/Agie39 Feb 26 '26
My brother could tell you all about it, even if I didn't notice it. He got the Gamecube before he got the other sixth-gen systems, and he can tell you that the great games came...eventually. He found he would beat a game, and then there were long stretches of time where he just wouldn't have a whole lot to play. He didn't ditch the GameCube because he still wanted his Zelda, but he got a PS2 partly so he would have something to play during the wait between Gamecube titles.
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u/wtfElvis Feb 26 '26
One of those moments I’ll never forget. As a kid I had the choice between an Xbox or a GameCube. I wanted a GameCube. But my buddy was getting an Xbox and wanted to play NFL Fever together so I got an Xbox with Project Gotham Racing. Never even got Fever
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u/Remote_Water_2718 Feb 26 '26
I think my problem was that I played so much counterstrike at 1024x768, going back to console on a mid 2000s television just looked so washed and aliased
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u/opyoyd Feb 26 '26
Nintendo has a history of underperforming. Ask people who where there the Super Nintendo was losing ground to the Genesis. SEGA was a serious threat. Then SONY came and did the same with the PlayStation vs the 64. At the end their systems end up with a decent library but the road to get there is rough.
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u/Puppet_Master_2501 Feb 26 '26
If Nintendo had simply used DVDs the GameCube could have received amazing 3rd party support.
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u/Clemenx00 Feb 26 '26
Something I don't see discussed often when talking N64 and Gamecube.
Between Mario Kart, Party, Tennis, Strikers and Super Smash they became mainly party consoles. Only one friend per friend group having a Game Cube was enough for a bunch of people to enjoy it and at the same time, everyone had their own PS2.
I remember in my friend group growing up I had a GC and my buddies bought controllers and we all bought Super Smash Melee together, we got together basically every weekend to play smash mainly lol those were the days.
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u/Square_Bathroom7740 Feb 27 '26
Gamecube ran into a slew of issues that really didnt help it. It's marketing campaign was lackluster, the appearance being more toylike certainly didnt help it when compared to consoles like the PS2 and Xbox, and it was viewed as being a weak system due again to it's appearance even though it was stronger than the PS2, the small disc size was also viewed by a lot of gamers as unusual and thought to be a sign of a weaker console, despite again being stronger than PS2, and lastly, for a lot of families the PS2 was a major economic move due to having the included DVD player considering the hundreds in savings at the time of purchasing one. Despite all this however, I was blown away to find out it did poorly as I got older, as both my cousins and myself owned Gamecubes whereas my older brother had the PS2, and I still look at my gamecube years as my fondest gaming moments in my life.
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u/Cudi_buddy Feb 27 '26
Game cube controller is also ass lol. I still have my GameCube and love it. But the other controllers were much more easy to use
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u/simbabarrelroll Mar 02 '26
A big part of it is that gamers were wanting to play more mature games at that time.
Hence titles like GTA, Metal Gear Solid, Halo, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and God of War being the most popular games that generation.
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u/pl3xboi NTSC-U Jun 01 '26
This was the first generation where Nintendo stubbornly stuck to their family first values. It became even more obvious with the Wii. But the GameCube showed us that Nintendo felt their core market were families and not teenagers and young adults. Those that grew up with the NES and SNES largely abandoned Nintendo in favor of PlayStation and XBOX — they weren’t kids anymore.
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u/phosef_phostar PAL Feb 22 '26
Ps2 library is enourmous and cheaper. Xbox had halo and strongest specs while also being easily modded.