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Originally posted by DoctorGonzo: <STRONG> The Game Cube shipped 700,000 units in the first week and sold out less than 50% of them. 50% of 700,000 is 350,000. In Japan, the console completely flopped. 140,000 units sold the first week out of a shipment of half a million. It still hasn't broken 300,000 units yet and Nintendo has only sent out another 64,000 units to stores. </STRONG> |
That's interesting, since according to a news post on www.igncube.com Smash Brothers Melee sold about 360,000 units in it's first four days in stores. So are people are buying multiple copies of the game? Probably not. A more probable explanation is that the game is moving Nintendo hardware. It doesn't mean that the GC will see future success or put up PS2 numbers, but it means that it's premature to call the GC a flop in Japan.
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<STRONG> The X-Box shipped 300,000 units in the first week and sold out 73% of them. 73% of them is 219,000. The quick response would be to say "WOW! Nintendo is kicking their asses!" But that's simply not true. A few points to consider: - Nintendo has nearly 20 years in the market and has built up a loyal fan base. While Microsoft is starting from Square One and doesn't even have a single mass-market franchise like the Mario series to pull people in with. Nintendo should be pulling better numbers, but they aren't. </STRONG> |
Well, this would be true if the numbers you quote are correct. But from what I've read, Nintendo's PR people have mentioned sales of 510,000 units in the first week of launch. Again, this doesn't mean the Xbox or PS2 sold poorly in the same time period, but it does mean that the GC is a pretty popular console in its own right.
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<STRONG> - The Game Cube launched in Japan with 3 games. The game library is growing slowly and Nintendo intends to produce the majority of the games itself. Which is good, considering the lack of developer support. Something that the PS2 has a lot of, and the X-Box is gaining. </STRONG> |
Apart from Enix and Square, which Japanese developers are not developing for the Cube and instead working on Xbox games? Tecmo might be exclusive to Xbox considering the release of DOA3, but I haven't seen anything that confirms this. Capcom, Konami, and Koei are developing for the Cube, so most of the major Japanese developers that would appeal to US audiences are onboard. I don't know about the smaller Japanese houses though.
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<STRONG> - Consoles make money on the games. They lose money on the hardware. The GC sold an average 1.3 games in Japan upon its launch. And only 1.7 in the U.S. That is the lowest sales rate of any console other than the N64 (which had far fewer titles). - Luigi's Mansion and Rouge Squadron are selling. Nothing else is. Fifa sold 4,400 copies in Japan between November 12-18. Did I mention it was the 3rd most popular GC game? Figures like thast speak for themselves, they tell developers "Game Cube games don't make us money". While, on the other hand, Microsoft is paying the way for developers to cover their some of their expenses while an installed base is established. Helps Microsoft a hell of a lot. The developers risk very little. </STRONG> |
I'd believe the Japanese numbers, since there were only 3 games at launch. I'm pretty skeptical of the US numbers you mentioned, especially since Sega sent out a press release stating how Super Monkey Ball would be a popular title based on pre-sell numbers and how TRU and EB were expecting it to be a pretty good seller. I see a lot of the Acclaim titles on the shelfs at Best Buy and Target, but Madden and Tony Hawk have been a lot harder to find. Somebody must be buying these games. And again, regarding the Japanese sales, in the week of Nov. 19-25, over 350,000 units of SSBM were sold. It's not a third party title, but it must mean an installed base is growing. Finally, it's been stated by Peter Main at Nintendo that a few of those Xbox developers are doing cross-platform development as well. Of course, he's not the most reliable source, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.
I have no doubt that the Xbox is selling well, since a lot of people having been anticipating it as the next big thing. However, it's hard to believe that Microsoft's success is coming solely at the expense of Nintendo's system. And in any case, the success and failure of a system has never been determined within weeks or months of a launch. Next year will be much more enlightening, and hopefully for me, pretty rewarding for all the console companies.
[Edit: still fixing some UBB code]
[ 12-01-2001: Message edited by: JC Denton ]