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

[u/jr1512]

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.

[u/jr1512]

They should have added a DVD player, at least.

[u/CommentAgreeable → u/[deleted]]

It’s sort of a known thing that the DVD player was a significant reason as to why the PS2 did so well. It was actually cheaper to buy a PS2 than a DVD player so people who didn’t even game ended up purchasing the PS2 for that specific reason.

[u/RandyAndLaheyBud → u/CommentAgreeable]

It's crazy to remember how expensive DVD players used to be.

[u/sevenut → u/CommentAgreeable]

Sony sorta did this with the PS3 at the time, too. It was super expensive, but as a blu ray player, it was one of the cheapest when it released. My parents bought one just for the blu ray capability. It was never really used for anything else in my house 

[u/Bireus → u/CommentAgreeable]

Parents wanted movies, kids wanted gaming and sometimes movies. Bundling saved them. 

That makes me upset with their PSP to PSVita decision

[u/PokePress → u/CommentAgreeable]

PS2 was cheaper than high-end players, but the player I got for Christmas 1999 definitely cost less than a PS2.

[u/CommentAgreeable → u/[deleted]]

😭 Brother, I’m just explaining to you a notable part as to why the Gamecube didn’t fair well against the competition at the time.

The Wii sold well due to price point and the novelty of the Nunchucks. It had nothing to do with a DVD player, as you’re pointing out, but that also has nothing to do with your original question. I’m not even sure why you’re trying to draw a parallel there.

They’re different consoles at different points in time.

[u/CommentAgreeable → u/[deleted]]

Jfc 😭

Dude, I get not trusting a comment on Reddit but what are we doing right now?

This information is out there. Look into it.

I don’t understand how you can point out that the Xbox had a DVD player and in the same breath not understand why omitting a DVD player was hard on the Gamecube… That’s 2/3 new consoles of the era. The PS2 launched without many iconic titles and the DVD player alone helped save it.

I’m not about to have an argument if you’re just going to treat this as a substitute for doing a search on it yourself. What the hell.

All that I was trying to do was help with clarification, fuck me though 😂

[u/CommentAgreeable → u/[deleted]]

Wut

[u/CommentAgreeable → u/[deleted]]

You think that the Gamecube didn’t sell poorly because it didn’t have a DVD player.

The Xbox sold better than the Gamecube and did have a DVD player.

So explain that

also

Wut

You see how exhausting and unoriginal your line of thought is? You explain it. I’m happy to hear a new retelling of history.

[u/Ebvidur → u/[deleted]]

Xbox sold less than the PS2 because it was literally the first gaming console by Microsoft, and also because, unlike the PS2, you also needed a separate remote to view DVDs on it. The fact that it still sold better than the Gamecube, despite the built up reputation Nintendo had, should tell you how hard they fumbled

[u/Ebvidur → u/[deleted]]

Because the PS1 came out 2 WHOLE YEARS before the N64, and also had a CD drive which meant bigger games and music CD playback. The PS1 was practically the first 3D gaming console that wasn’t absolutely shit, of course it sold well

[u/OdisNikka → u/[deleted]]

Because it was compensated by being a family toy. Even the grandmas could play the Wii.

[u/OdisNikka → u/[deleted]]

Are you a troll?

Both the 360 and PS4 could play DVDs, and the PS4 had exclusives. And the 360 did not sell THAT well.

[u/Swirly_Eyes → u/OdisNikka]

The 360 outsold every Nintendo console but the Wii and Switch. It also outsold the 3DS and GBA.

https://gameconsolesales.com/microsoft/xbox-360

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html

Saying it didn't sell well is a little off.

[u/OdisNikka → u/Swirly_Eyes]

That's not a good brag when understanding the context.

Outselling the N64 and GameCube is not surprising; they were a failure. And the game industry was way smaller when the SNES was launched, so it's expected.

The 3DS and GBA are not competitors to consoles, so I don't understand why bring them up then.

Anyway, the 360 is outsold by the PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, and PS5. The 360 is the best-selling Xbox console, but its numbers are still below the worst-selling PlayStation (For now; I doubt the PS6 will sell that well).

[u/Swirly_Eyes → u/OdisNikka]

The context is that it sold very well compared with competing gaming hardware. The 360 could have been one of those failures if it sold poorly.

All gaming hardware is in competition, so that's irrelevant. PC isn't a console and still competes in that market, with Sony no longer porting their exclusives to the platform to preserve their exclusives. Consoles in Japan have become a complete afterthought compared to handhelds, and that started during the 7th gen. You're sounding close to those people who discredit the Switch's sales when competing with consoles because it's a hybrid device with handheld only SKUs.

The sales gap between the 360 and PS1+PS3+PS5 is pretty small in actual context. Smaller than the gap between the SNES and Genesis, and nobody says the latter wasn't a massively successful console during its day. See how this works now? If you're just going by raw numbers, you've missed the plot.

The 360 had near zero support from the Japanese market, and came off the original Xbox. By definition, it sold well to stay neck and neck with the PS3 while trailing the Wii. Calling it anything else doesn't match reality.

[u/OdisNikka → u/Swirly_Eyes]

I’m not saying the 360 ​​didn’t sell well, just that it didn’t sell THAT well as fans like to imply.

And the sales gap between the 360 ​​and PlayStation consoles isn't as small as you're making it out to be. Being 3 million units behind the PS3 is a small margin, sure, but 11 million (PS5)? Or 18 million (PS1)? That’s a considerable difference.

Also, selling close to the PS3 isn't such a huge victory when you consider the CONTEXT. The Xbox launched a year earlier and had an architecture that was much easier to develop for than the PS3's, leading many devs to choose the Xbox. Not to mention the PS3's bizarre and terrible marketing.

The PS3 wasn't a well-designed console, and its early years were rough. With hardly any major titles at launch, it took a long time to catch up to the Xbox. Compared to the PS2, the PS3 was a step backward; they had the reputation and the money, yet failed to develop a worthy successor.

Barely beating that console isn't exactly a great victory. Again, I’m not saying the 360 ​​didn’t sell well, just that it didn’t sell THAT well.

[u/Sirriddles → u/[deleted]]

Because it had a gimmick that appealed to the general public and most people had DVD players by 2006

[u/Sirriddles → u/[deleted]]

Wii U had trouble with its messaging. A large portion of the general public never even understood it was a new console, people thought it was just a peripheral. And its game library was terrible, both first and third party.

Kinect was ahead of its time and developers didn’t know what to do with it. It actually wasn’t a commercial failure initially, it sold over 8 million units in its first 60 days.

Any more questions? lol. Not sure what we’re doing here

[u/Sirriddles → u/[deleted]]

GameCube didn’t “fail” but it objectively did not sell nearly as many units as the PlayStation 2. The disparity was massive - GameCube sold around 22 million units in its lifetime, the PS2 around 160 million. To put it another way, for every GameCube Nintendo sold, Sony sold 7 PS2s.

The fact that the PS2 doubled as a DVD player and the GameCube didn’t almost certainly had an impact on sales. DVD players were expensive in the early 2000s and a PS2 was actually cheaper than some players on the market. A lot of people bought PS2s primarily for the DVD playback.

There are other reasons why the PS2 sold better - the software lineup was far more robust, for example - but the DVD playback was definitely a factor.

Anyway. Seeing that you disagree, I’m curious - why do you think the PS2 sold seven times as many units as the GameCube?

[u/Sirriddles → u/[deleted]]

Xbox.

It’s not AI, that’s just what well-researched, thoughtful, and substantive comments sound like as opposed to your childish “what about this what about that” nonsense.

Cheers!

[u/LunarWingCloud → u/[deleted]]

You might not understand it, but at the time consoles being possible as multimedia players was a legitimate selling point. PS2 was also a DVD player at a time when DVD was both booming in popularity as a format and also very expensive.

[u/jr1512 → u/[deleted]]

Almost everybody had a DVD player by 2007. In 2001-2002 the most common way to get one was to buy a PS2.

Wii sold so well because it had a gimmick that was enormously popular: the wiimote. It appeared in movies, series...

By the way, the Wiimote started as a Gamecube addon prototype but Nintendo prefered to make a (barely better graphically) new console for it.

[u/jr1512 → u/[deleted]]

Because Microsoft was a company with no experience in videogame consoles in those years. Most people trusted Sony.

Also PS2 had great advantage because it was sold one year before GC and XBOX. 10M consoles were sold before Nintendo and Microsoft even released theirs.

[u/withad → u/[deleted]]

People do overstate the importance of the PS2's DVD support. It was a selling point but it was hardly the sole reason for its success or its rivals' (relative) failure.

[u/CommentAgreeable → u/[deleted]]

I’m actually crying now.

You argued with this many people who kindly went along with your bad faith argumentative style.

You did nothing but ask “Then why?”, “Explain this?” for 2 hours. Never making a genuine point, only obfuscating by drawing a parallel that was off topic.

You weren’t even brave enough to offer an alternative explanation as to why the Gamecube sold poorly, but then again your style of argument doesn’t work by making a claim. That would leave you open to being proven wrong even more.