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[Eddie-Griffin]

In the US, which were the Xbox (2001) and GameCube's biggest and primary markets, more so the GameCube than the Xbox which may shock some people, the Xbox and GameCube were incredibly close in sales.

Nintendo had brand and IP recognition to go along with a cheap price, but was never able to overcome the Xbox in the US. Why is that? Let's look

2002

2007 the year of discontinuation

14.3 million Xboxes to 11.5 million Gamecubes is less than a 3 million unit difference.


Usually people will bring up a lot more third-party support than the Gamecube as a reason, the problem with this is that in the US at least these games really didn't sell even half as good as the PS2 versions so were in most cases weren't significant in moving hardware.

From theMagicbox sales thread for top selling US games for the Xbox and Gamecube

Xbox

Fmt   Publisher     Title                               Units Sold (in Millions)
XB    Microsoft     Halo 2                                              4.29
XB    Microsoft     Halo: Combat Evolved                                3.94
XB    Take 2        Grand Theft Auto Double Pack                         1.5
XB    Ubisoft       Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell                          1.46
XB    Microsoft     Project Gotham Racing                                1.2
XB    Sega          ESPN NFL 2K5                                         1.1
XB    Electronic ArtMadden NFL 2005                                     1.08
XB    LucasArts     Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republ                1.01                 1

Gamecube

Fmt   Publisher     Title                               Units Sold (in Millions)
GC    Nintendo      Super Smash Bros. Melee                             2.66                
GC    Nintendo      Mario Kart: Double Dash!!                           1.82
GC    Nintendo      Super Mario Sunshine                                 1.8
GC    Nintendo      Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker                         1.75
GC    Nintendo      Luigi's Mansion                                      1.6
GC    Nintendo      Metroid Prime                                       1.26
GC    Sega          Sonic Adventure 2 Battle                            1.05

The Xbox has a slight lead in software sales but they also were more likely to have a purchaser buy multiple games (attach rate) so with this in mind these top sellers are close to being on par.

So this leave only two possible conclusions for the Xbox's victory

1. Were Xbox games better than the GameCube's which meant that Xbox games made consumers want to BUY console hardware with those games MORE over the GameCube, leading to the lead in consoles sales?

2. Or is it that Nintendo cutting the price (soon after rumors of them dropping out were going around) to $99, a year before the Xbox and PS2 cut the price, to $149, destroy confidence and appeal of the GameCube to consumers, and that made people decided to buy the GameCube less?

Which do you agree with?

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Playstation effect.
I personally preferred both over Playstation 2 that gen.

I think Xbox offering a decent online component is what gave it the edge in NA gamers minds.

 

[Captain Toad]

They were very close because they both sold basically nothing. PS2 was all that mattered.

 

[Dream-Knife]

I have both. Got a GC before the price drop. None of us wanted to play the games gamecube had. Nintendo lost rare, and their own series kind of went to shit on that system. Melee and Double Dash were good though.

 

[01011001]

Multi-platform on GameCube was a mess, that's the reason it lost in the end worldwide imo

the controller with 4 missing buttons was a huge issue leading to many games needing to implement either a toggle button or to map multiple functions onto button combos, the Mini-DVDs were an issue with games like most Ubisoft titles having compressed textures and audio, and lastly the system had practically no Online functionality and that was the days of Xbox Live.

also no DVD movie playback etc. didn't help either


Nintendo made the same mistake of the N64 again... they made it hard for third parties to port over games with their smaller discs and weird controller

 

[bender]

PGR2 and Pikmin 2 not being on those lists hurts my heart a little bit is what I would say if I was sad flesh tube with a heart.

 

[Dane]

The Gamecube was stumbling from the start, the Xbox at its launch day had more games and by the closure of the year it had like 2x more games than Gamecube at the same time, the third party support was much bigger which made not only the OG Xbox to have an exclusive for almost every genre at the launch, but also multiplat great selling games like Silent Hill 2, Max Payne, Nascars and F1 2001 that weren't on Nintendo's console.

" Usually people will bring up a lot more third-party support than the Gamecube as a reason, the problem with this is that in the US at least these games really didn't sell even half as good as the PS2 versions so were in most cases weren't significant in moving hardware."

They did better than on Gamecube, another thing is that as the average gamer age was going up so did the market for more mature oriented games, and some of T rated and lots of M rated games weren't there but rather on Xbox and PS2 with the former being more profilic on that segment.

 

[Romulus]

I liked Xbox and GC more than ps2. I think ps2 was a beast in sales and games, but the built in DVD player was what sold it more than anything imo.
Xbox was this new machine that could play PC games, but the brand was unknown. I feel its library is top 3 all time. Less games than ps2, but better imo.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

I chalk up the Gamecube thing to having a kiddy image compared to the other systems. Purple as it's main color didn't do any favors either I don't think, hence "purple lunchbox" jokes

 

[teezzy]

All three consoles were awesome

Gamecube was Nintendo at their best. Experimenting with franchises - FPS Metroid, cel-shaded Zelda, launching console with Luigi, Donkey Kong rhythm game, Mario Kart with two drivers, etc. Still keeping up with the competition horsepower wise for the last time
PS2 for GTA and all the JRPG galore
Xbox legit mainstreamed gaming as we know it today via the internal HDD, Xbox Live, ripping music CDs to your console, PC game ports, etc

You really couldn't go wrong that gen

 

[Dane]

I chalk up the Gamecube thing to having a kiddy image compared to the other systems. Purple as it's main color didn't do any favors either I don't think, hence "purple lunchbox" jokes

Yes, and the more mature games were proportionally being the yearly best sellers as it stands today, GC missed that train.

 

[01011001]

I liked Xbox and GC more than ps2.

me too, mostly because back then couch multiplayer with schoolmates was king. the easy 4 Player support and the local MP games available on GC and Xbox just made them 10x more desirable to me and many in my school. I only knew 1 kid back then that had a PS2, everyone else had an Xbox or GameCube.

Halo, Mario Party, Smash, Time Splitters 2, Cel Damage, Nightfire, Mario Kart etc. those were the hit games among my schoolmates, and yeah some of them are multiplat, but having to buy a multi-tap was just such a bad way to get people together to play.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

Yes, and the more mature games were proportionally being the yearly best sellers as it stands today, GC missed that train.

There were the REs for it, but that franchise alone wasn't able to change that perception

 

[teezzy]

There were the REs for it, but that franchise alone wasn't able to change that perception

The RE games, Killer 7, and Eternal Darkness are the most notable ones

I'll never forget being told I owned a baby console because it didn't have GTA though lol

 

[Dream-Knife]

All three consoles were awesome

Gamecube was Nintendo at their best. Experimenting with franchises - FPS Metroid, cel-shaded Zelda, launching console with Luigi, Donkey Kong rhythm game, Mario Kart with two drivers, etc. Still keeping up with the competition horsepower wise for the last time
PS2 for all the JRPG galore
Xbox legit mainstreamed gaming as we know it today via the internal HDD, Xbox Live, ripping music CDs to your console, PC game ports, etc

You really couldn't go wrong that gen

As a Nintendo fanboy at the time, GC is when Nintendo lost focus. They lost rareware, and seemily doubled down on being the kiddie console in a changing industry. Their first party output couldn't compete with their prior console either. They were trying everything to survive.

 

[ByWatterson]

It's hard to overstate how much N64 ruined Nintendo's reputation regarding third-party offerings. GameCube was a little dream box, but no one - not third party publishers, not most core gamers - believed Nintendo's ability to consistently deliver big titles.

Xbox, which was just a PC, was brimming with excitement and many PC ports.

 

[lovetalkgames]

I was super bitter during the GCN era because every important third party game was some budgeted version with less features. The Capcom deal that gave us Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, and the others was one of the rare moments we were actually vindicated. I never owned an original Xbox but I doubt their player base dealt with this.

 

[Saber]

Personally I rather prefer the GC for it's solid controller and some nice gems on it. And thats not to say Xbox didn't have a few as well, Conker Live and Reloaded is one my favorite games on Xbox(alongside Panzer Dragoon Orta). But it's not like both of them were that much of deal at time.

 

[teezzy]

As a Nintendo fanboy at the time, GC is when Nintendo lost focus. They lost rareware, and seemily doubled down on being the kiddie console in a changing industry. Their first party output couldn't compete with their prior console either. They were trying everything to survive.

Possibly. For me though, I have so many fond memories of Gamecube and find many favorites still hold up well.

I can only list a handful of N64 games I feel the same about. Mostly the Zeldas and the Rare stuff.

 

[Dane]

There were the REs for it, but that franchise alone wasn't able to change that perception

Problem was that they were the sole card carrying mature image as a whole for the Gamecube, then you had like Geist in one year and Twin Snakes in another, they didn't have a massive hit like Halo right from the start, many publishers started to halve their offerings to this public such as Sega discontinuing 2K sports on it right before selling to Take Two which only supported by publishing very few games developed by other developers, and Rockstar only releasing one game that was Smugglers Run Warzone.

 

[Captain Toad]

PS2, obviously, had the best library. It's not even debatable. That's what happens when you outsell all three of your competitors combined times 5.

Between GameCube, Xbox and Dreamcast, GameCube wins mostly due to help from Capcom with the various Resident Evil games. I'd put Dreamcast ahead of Xbox, which really had nothing for me, as I could never get into Halo.

 

[64bitmodels]

I'd say its both

Xbox had halo which pretty much outclassed every FPS of the time, it was the goldeneye of the 2000s. Gamecube also was a kiddy console in an era of mature edgy gaming. it had a proprietary storage medium with no DVD compatibility and a wack controller that didn't have all of the buttons a regular controller did, as well as just looking like a toy

either way, Xbox and Gamecube were video game consoles while the PS2 was a cheap dvd player. It's the best selling game console for a reason

honestly i think it's more interesting to discuss how different most of gaming would have been if Nintendo put a CD drive in the N64.

 

[Captain Toad]

honestly i think it's more interesting to discuss how different most of gaming would have been if Nintendo put a CD drive in the N64.

Or if Nintendo hadn't backstabbed and awoke the sleeping giant.

 

[93xfan]

Choosing between the system that had Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Smash Melee, REmake, RE4, Mario Kart DD

and

The system with Halo 1, Halo 2, Ninja Gaiden Black, Jade Empire, KOTOR, PGR is a tough one.

Xbox for MP (yes even local, Halo was that good)

GameCube for SP (Mario Zelda and Metroid blew me away).

 

[CaptainSlayAHo]

For me, xbox games felt more adult, from tone to graphics (and better overall tbh) , and the GameCube controller was the worst one ever made by the top 3,which is saying a lot after the n64 piece of shit

 

[64bitmodels]

i love both but i have more of a history with the gamecube seeing as how i didn't even know the original Xbox existed until like 2014 lol
Wind waker, Twilight princess, the prime trilogy and melee are all amazing and i love them dearly, and RE4 is just one of my favorites of all time
that being said Halo 1 and 2 i love too much, CE is such a masterpiece when it comes to atmosphere, gameplay, music, everything. Jet Set Radio Future has one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever made. While i havent played kotor it seems to be a beloved one by many, Morrowind is considered a classic and project gotham racing was honestly better than forza at the time.

It also happens that while Gamecube's got amazing emulation, Xbox outside of the official consoles (which don't support every game sadly) is an absolute joke. Not many of the games are compatible. it suuuuucks dude

 

[RoadHazard]

Every time there's a thread like this it shocks me to hear people don't like the GCN controller. It's sooo good. Sure, maybe it's lacking a few buttons, and yeah, it was made for Miyamoto, but it feels incredible in your hands. The Duke is absolute trash.

 

[CaptainSlayAHo]

Every time there's a thread like this it shocks me to hear people don't like the GCN controller. It's sooo good. Sure, maybe it's lacking a few buttons, and yeah, it was made for Miyamoto, but it feels incredible in your hands. The Duke is absolute trash.

Fuck the GameCube controller and the click they claim

 

[64bitmodels]

Fuck the GameCube controller and the click they claim

bro trust me, that analog click is to die for. It shocks me it didnt become a standard after nintendo released that beauty of a controller.

.... still a wack ass controller, though

 

[CaptainSlayAHo]

bro trust me, that analog click is to die for. It shocks me it didnt become a standard after nintendo released that beauty of a controller.

.... still a wack ass controller, though

Maybe it had some redeeming features, but nothing the n64 and GameCube controllers overweighed the faults lol

 

[RoadHazard]

Fuck the GameCube controller and the click they claim

The click they "claim"? What, lol. Are you saying the click isn't actually there? It is.

 

[64bitmodels]

honestly i used to consider the PS2 as the GOAT back when i got mine (i'm not an OG either, i got mine in 2021) but these days i just find more problems with it, from the subpar emulation to the awful third party ports to the interlaced display for most games.
every PS2 exclusive feels like it's being held back on PS2, like there's a better version available but it just doesn't exist because it's only on that one platform. that's never an issue on gamecube because the games are better emulated and are also just more well designed for the console, and in the case of Xbox the console versions are great and the PC versions even better.

 

[CaptainSlayAHo]

The click they "claim"? What, lol. Are you saying the click isn't actually there? It is.

"clique they claim"... Autocorrect.... Reference to a Tupac song, poor one at that lol


EDIT:
Translated: fuck those fellows, the things they like and the people who hold them in good regards

My own preferential thing is innately superior, and the people who respect that are upstanding citizens.

Best regards,

Fuck n64 and GameCube controller gang

 

[JohnnyFootball]

The fun fact is that I never owned a PS2. I owned both an Xbox and Cube. Didn't play much on my cube, but my Xbox got a ton of play.

I didn't become a Sony fan until the PS3 and that was because of bluray.

However, in the entire 2000s to today I don't believe anyone had a better reign on exclusives from 2006-2009 than the Xbox 360 did. I never once experienced a Red Ring of Death.

 

[Yerd]

Most people coming from the previous generations were becoming adults. In line with more mature content. Nintendo's crappy controller and xbox live.

 

[64bitmodels]

I never once experienced a Red Ring of Death.

lucky bastard
although i never did, that's cuz i got a 360 in the early 2010s when that RROD thing was sorted out. to not get one with the original model makes you real lucky

 

[Deerock71]

It was 'teh mature' vs. kiddie: Halo vs. Purple Lunch Box. It wasn't consumer confidence; it was tweenie perceptions.

 

[64bitmodels]

It was 'teh mature' vs. kiddie: Halo vs. Purple Lunch Box. It wasn't consumer confidence; it was tweenie perceptions.

back when console wars were a lunch table thing between 12 year olds and not actual serious debates 30 year olds have on gaf

 

[Syphon Filter]

Fuck the GameCube controller and the click they claim

gamecube controller is nice, how long would I mourn it?

 

[CaptainSlayAHo]

lucky bastard
although i never did, that's cuz i got a 360 in the early 2010s when that RROD thing was sorted out. to not get one with the original model makes you real lucky

I got two of them, and it was a pain in the ass, so fuck xbox for that lol

 

[bender]

OG Xbox was such a beast for racers. MotoGP, RSC, Toca, Burnout, NFS, PGR, Outrun

 

[Handel]

The GameCube had better games overall, but the Xbox had more appealing features such as online play and better specs (as far as I'm aware it went Xbox>GC>>PS2). Xbox also had games in genres never really seen on consoles before like WRPGs (Morrowind) and CRPGs (KOTOR 1&2), and had the best FPS on the market in Halo. GC third party support was a mess, even more than Xbox'x in some regards. Beyond that, this was the at the height of gamers being in their edge lord phase where they rejected anything perceived as kiddie/

I'm of the view that GC has one of the strongest first party line-ups ever, and is a top three Nintendo output for first party. Pikmin, Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion would all get their real starts on GC, and that was the last time Nintendo created multiple new franchises in a single gen. Got two great Zelda's even if one is shared with the Wii, a great experimental Mario, one of the better Mario Karts, the return to greatness of the Metriod series with the Metroid Prime games, the phenomenon that is SSBM, and the amazing last gasp of the F-Zero franchise with GX. There wasn't much third party support, but it was more interesting in what Nintendo funded/allowed/published to try and attract the "mature" crowd, with games like Eternal Darkness, REmake, RE4, RE0 and Geist.

Also GC controller still best controller, fuck the haters! (though perfectly understandable to say it didn't help third party support, given that it caused problems with some games by having less buttons)

 

[Iced Arcade]

Loved both and played both a lot more than my PS2. (Still loved my PS2 though)

 

[LordBlodgett]

I mean XBox had Halo 1 and Halo 2, enough to show they were serious about gaming. There are loads of great GameCube games, and I still have the Gameboy module so I can play my Gameboy games on GameCube, but they definitely lacked a clear plan that gen. Xbox on the other hand had all kinds of excellent games that drew me to them (obviously halo, but also Fable, Ninja Gaiden Black, Jet Set Radio Future, Mechassault, Project Gotham Racing, Jade Empire, Elder Scrolls Morrowind, and others...).

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

So this leave only two possible conclusions for the Xbox's victory

1. Were Xbox games better than the GameCube's which meant that Xbox games made consumers want to BUY console hardware with those games MORE over the GameCube, leading to the lead in consoles sales?

2. Or is it that Nintendo cutting the price (soon after rumors of them dropping out were going around) to $99, a year before the Xbox and PS2 cut the price, to $149, destroy confidence and appeal of the GameCube to consumers, and that made people decided to buy the GameCube less?

Which do you agree with?

It’s America after the edgiest decade ever. Gaming is changing and everyone is more than eager to shift to more “mature” content, not to mention Nintendo’s luster is already on the decline after the N64. XBox is definitely more appealing, especially when it does have some of the big third party games that PS2 is getting, while GC only gets a few and the controls are often a mess.

Conclusion #2 makes little sense. $99 is impulse buy territory. If anything, we could easily infer that GC only managed to scrape 11.5 million thanks to that very aggressive price drop, just like PS2 Slim prolonged the PS2’s life way beyond the start of Gen 7 and especially in countries with poorer economies. RE4 probably gave the system a little boost, too. Without those, the GC could have fared even worse.

This is why I don’t understand GC stans. Nintendo made a competitive system tech- wise, only to drag it down with the most appalling decisions - the storage, the controller, the looks. The system had power, but lacked identity. The Wii turned that around completely: it didn’t have the grunt, but it made things entirely its own way and had its very exclusive reasons to appeal to people.

 

[Knightime_X]

I wonder how things played out if GameCube used fullsized dvd media instead of mini dvd.
GC missed out on TONS of opportunities due to its own limitations.

 

[Ozzie666]

They both lost, but I'll give credit to Microsoft. They may have actually expanded the traditional audience to include more PC gamers and carved a niche out for themselves. Nintendo tried to recover from the N64, but the it just wasn't enough. Also considering first time entry into the business, with the early support of Sega, impressive. The XBOX launch was good, the size of the duke not withstanding (which is funny). Dead or Alive, Ralisport Challenge, Ninja Gaiden and that on line experience, some overall good quality titles. Nintendo should have swept the floor with them, but they struggled against a new comer, after barely fending off a terrible Saturn. Nintendo should have learned from the N64 carts and the Dreamcast customer CD's and lack of a DVD, they learned almost nothing. Yes it was still a kiddy look, that didn't bother me. But truth is, they didn't read the room - this wasn't 1992 anymore.

 

[Ezquimacore]

While I love the GameCube and overall I think it had the same amount of good games, Microsoft had Halo, the better versions of splinter cell, fable, Halo 2, Ninja Gaiden and online. While these days that doesn't sound like much, back then it was fresh as fuck. Try to play Ninja Gaiden on Xbox and then Shinobi on PlayStation, it was a generational downgrade.

 

[jufonuk]

Nintendo didn’t have Virtua fighter.

Halo was insanely good it was just crazy how perfect the game was.

I got the PS2 for Virtua fighter sold it soon after.

Got an Xbox and game cube. Between then they had all the games I wanted to play.

But in hindsight the design of the PS2 and the DVD drive were too perfect I think it was about the same price as most high end DVD players at the time. So you not only got yourself a games console but a decent DVD player to boot

The Xbox was just too freaking big and the game cube looked liked a lunch box without any dvd playback.
Yeah the GameCube really did look like a kids console with the colours and the controller, was that it’s undoing ? I’m going to say no I think it really was Nintendo and their reliance on those strange little discs and well no third party as such.

 

[IDKFA]

Personally, I preferred the game offering on the Xbox than the GC. Halo, KOTOR and Elder Scrolls were more to my taste than what the GC offered