Jeremy517

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFr...804554,00.html

I think the article could have found better games to reference than Backyard Wrestling and Italian Job. Timesplitters 3 is being published by a new publisher, so that might still be on Gamecube. Hitman 3 looks doubtful though...

Galanthas

That's what happens when you never truly support a console in the first place. Eidos not developing for Nintendo isn't a blow because besides hitman 2 which was *late* anyhow and Timesplitters 2 they haven't released anything worth a damn on the system. I'm getting sick of these damn companies blaming Nintendo for their own software sales. It's their fault for putting out crappy products in the first place.

Groucho

Does this mean no more Tomb Raider games for the Cube? Gawd, I hope so.

PixyJunket

First Acclaim and now Eidos!! The Gamecube's overall library quality score is going to jump 2 or 3 whole points now!

kvrdave

It is interesting how some companies treat their cube products as an afterthought, and then are suprised that they don't do well.

Jeremy517

Be fair now... once every millenium or so, Eidos comes up with a good game, whereas Acclaim never did .

But yeah, it is stupid of Eidos to blame Nintendo when they never cared in the first place.

Decker

Certainly, these two are not the giants of publishing, but it is beginning to look like a trend. Don't forget Sega Sports as well. When third party developers start bailing, it's not a good sign This is the same problem they had with the N64.

Jackskeleton

I'm sorry, but if crappy companies are pulling out, I'm not sweating it. once good companies decide to pull out I'll start worrying.

PixyJunket

What problem they had with the N64, they didn't have companies like Eidos and Acclaim crapping out dozens of turds every years? Nintendo still has strong support of 3rd parties that make GOOD games.

menaz

I think Im behind on who is developing for GC right now. Did Sega Sports end up bailing? Dont know since I dont care much for sports game to begin with. If they did, I wouldnt count Sega Sports as a crappy company, thats kind of a big boy to lose.

evenflow

I agree. Nintendo certainly doesn't want the Gamecub to be a "niche" console and the less games it gets, the more it gets closer to being a niche console. Doesn't matter that those games they lost suck.

kvrdave

I would be more worried if Sega pulled out everything. But to just lose the sports side...meh. I know some around here enjoy sports game son their GC, but I use the Xbox for that, and I believe most gamers own 2 consoles, or have ready acces to a different one than they own.

young

so all the owners of gamecube don't care? and think that it's actually good for companies (especially crappy ones) to quit supporting their console?

evenflow

They only care about their Marios and Zeldas...

kvrdave

Owning a GC, I can say that I don't care. I didn't buy any of their games before for the GC, so my only concern is the "impression" it gives.

Decker

Certainly Sega is still a big, important developer for the GC, and missing out on games like ESPN Football may not bother folks much, but it's another sign of struggle : Multi-console games tend to sell far fewer copies on the GC than the other systems. The comparative sales numbers of the Sega Sports games were startling; they just didn't move on the GC at all. Now part of that fact, I'm sure, is due to the large memory space requirement for season saves on sports games, but that may be perceived as a flaw with the system. The perception is out there; it's in the article above "Nintendo's struggling system". If more and more third party developers look at sales numbers and see very low GC sales numbers, they're not going to want to continue to develop for the system.

There are two sales figures I'd like to see:
How many Splinter Cell copies were sold on the GC vs the PS2, since the port was released at the same time as the PS2 and way after the Xbox. I didn't hear much about the GC version as opposed to the heavily advertised PS2 one.

Sales numbers of Soul Calibur 2, since that is a port that one would expect people might choose to buy on the GC even if they owned multiple systems.

Galanthas

Comparing Splinter Cell's sales between PS2 and Gamecube is not a fair comparison since the PS2's user base is so much larger than the Gamecubes. Compare it to Xbox's user base instead since it's similar to the cubes.

I wouldn't be suprised if Soul Calibur 2 sold more on GC compared to Xbox.

Decker

Well that's not fair either since it was an Xbox game ported to the cube. If however sales on the GC were miserable, then you'd understnad why Ubi Soft or other developers would shy away from future ports.

Quote:

I wouldn't be suprised if Soul Calibur 2 sold more on GC compared to Xbox.

I wouldn't either, in fact I expect it. I'd like to see the actual numbers, though.

BTW Is there a good source for finding game sales numbers? It's ironic that people are saying that video gaming is now a bigger business than the movies, yet sales numbers tend to be so secret.
I for one would love to know how that last Tomb Raider sold a million copies. Poor suckers, I bet most of them bought Enter The Matrix as well.

Gizmo

I know at my store, we got in 20 Soul Caliburs for each system. As of writing we have 1 for GameCube left, 5 for Xbox, and 12 for PS2...

Also, who would buy Sports games on Gamecube OR PS2 if you own an Xbox. Sports games take up SO much room on a memory card, and atleast with an Xbox you have a Hard drive.

PixyJunket

I agree.. people who play sports games have a PS2 or an Xbox.. that's just the way it is.

Decker

I'm not suprised at your sales numbers, especially with those PS2's flaming and exploding all the time in your store.

Seriously, the memory card issue was a factor, but at least Sony's card is big enough to accomidate a few games. I agree the hard drive is the way to go, but certianly Sony's memory card isn't frightening people away from the PS2 version of Madden 2004.

I don't think that Soul Calibur 2 is really representitive of the GC's viability in the multi-console market. The inclusion of Link returns that game to the "specialty" neiche as much as if it were a first-party game. Maybe I'm not explaining myself properly (and I don't think I am), but Link's inclusion really throws off the sales numbers. It was a brilliant move on Namco's part, but it shouldn't be representative of anything except the loyalty of Nintendo fans.

Adam Tyner

NPD publishes data regularly. I don't know of a place online that has that data publicly available, but it often winds up on message boards shortly after it's posted wherever. They're often a few weeks behind, or at least, they are when they start making the rounds.

The July numbers are out, but I've only seen excerpts.

FWIW, the GameCube version was the only one I remember seeing print/television ads for.

Groucho

I think those June numbers say a lot about why people buy Gamecubes. Only one of the top ten games is third party, and it's a game not available on Xbox or PS2 (Sonic Adventure 2).

The fact of the matter is that very few households have the Gamecube as their only console. It's usually alongside a PS2, an Xbox, or both.

mmconhea

I was first worried about this drop in support, because I'm a Timesplitters fan. Luckily Free Radical just jumped ship on Eidos to work with a "multiplatform publisher."

PixyJunket

I've seen the Xbox commerical for Soul Calibur 2.. featuring Spawn. Of course, I only saw that ONCE and the GC one a bunch of times.