|
Gamecube sells quadruple
Looks like the price drop was a good move.
GameCube Sales Quadruple By Mike Viscel -- News Writer Published 8:42 AM CDT, October 2, 2003 The price cut is just a week or so old and sales are already picking up rapidly. Sales rates of Nintendo's GameCube home video console have more than quadrupled since a price reduction to $99.99 last week. "Clearly, this move is what game players desired, and also what our retail partners wanted," says George Harrison, senior vice president, marketing and corporate communications, Nintendo of America. "We're already receiving requests for additional shipments of Nintendo GameCube systems between now and the holidays." "The price cut is working great!" stated Dan DeMatteo, president, GameStop Corp. "Our sales of Nintendo GameCube have increased more than fourfold. We are currently increasing our shipment requests for the system throughout the holidays." The new $99.99 MSRP for Nintendo GameCube is an aggressive move as Nintendo heads into the holiday season. More than 100 new titles will be available before the end of the year, including the season's most-anticipated title, Mario Kart: Double Dash!! In addition, Nintendo has just announced a massive marketing campaign fronted by a new tag line, "who are you?" More than $50 million will be invested in launching the "who are you?" campaign, part of a total marketing push of $100 million through the end of the year. » Mike Viscel |
<marquee scroll=left>:hump:</marquee>
|
Maybe microsoft and sony will lower their prices now.
|
Hey - with some solid GC exclusive titles now out and price reduced (Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime) and their sequels in the works, GCN could make a surprising leap.
BTW I played Viewtiful Joe at BB today at lunch - that game ROCKS! :D:thumbsup: |
Mario Kart and Rogue Squardron 3 should help sales as well if they are well reviewed.
|
Quadrupled from what I wonder? Week to week? Month to month? Day to day?
|
Originally posted by The Franchise Quadrupled from what I wonder? Week to week? Month to month? Day to day? |
I guess I helped their sales figures... I picked one up last weekend; haven't had a chance to even play it yet, but I've grabbed a few exclusives, Resident Evil 0 and Rogue Squadron II.
At $99... I don't feel nearly as guilty as I would buying an X-Box for $179; although my wife might argue the point... :D |
Now give me the Zelda bundle!
|
I think Nintendo is playing this out brilliantly. Welcome back, Nintendo! :up: I think this is the beginning of Nintendo being neck and neck with Sony and maybe edging out in the next console war.
|
My wife got one for me at KB about a week ago. I hadn't even open mine as of yesterday. Yesterday my wife returned that one, went to EB games and bought a Platinum 'Cube, Wavebird and Mario Sunshine for $130. Three words: best. controller. ever.
|
Originally posted by GatorDeb I think this is the beginning of Nintendo being neck and neck with Sony and maybe edging out in the next console war. Nintendo was in this place before, but screwed it up with the N64, by using carts, screwing over third parties, screwing up the partnership with Sony etc. I just hope they can beat out MS next gen and get in a firm second place. |
Ummmm... Sorry but I fail to see how a dramatic one-week sales increase spawned by a heavily-publicized price drop of 33% has any real significance on either this generation of consoles or the next. There was a short-lived dramatic sales spike when they introduced the free game promotion as well. It is what it is. I'm sure there's relief at Nintendo that consumers are interested in buying their console at a low price point, but it's hard for me to read anything else into it than that. I'm fairly certain that if the PS2 or Xbox dropped to $119.99 tomorrow, a lot more units would sell. I'm sure both Sony and MS are aware of that yet have their reasons (sound or not) for staying put right now.
|
Originally posted by Aphex Twin They are all the same. Go Nintendo! Hopefully they'll have a good holiday season. |
It will fall to the game selection. currently PS2 still has the biggest game background and will continue to dominate for some time to come if you ask me.
|
Originally posted by Jackskeleton It will fall to the game selection. currently PS2 still has the biggest game background and will continue to dominate for some time to come if you ask me. |
Originally posted by Jackskeleton It will fall to the game selection. currently PS2 still has the biggest game background and will continue to dominate for some time to come if you ask me. They have all the big third parties in the bag. For exclusives, Nintendo only has their first party games, Factor 5 (and nothing's stopping them for putting out games on the competition) and Silicon Knights. They have RE this gen, but that's a tired franchise and will likely go third party next gen. MS has Bungie and Rare (both who put out very few games, albeit excellent ones when they do come out). Sony has the most support from EA, Square, Rockstar, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, etc. |
Originally posted by ctyner Well, isn't that kind of beyond any doubt? It's really a race for #2 and positioning for the next generation, and I'd be surprised (and baffled) if Microsoft or Nintendo had any realistic goals of overtaking Sony this generation short of giving their consoles away or paying people to take 'em. Their advantage in games isn't going to go away unless they make some major mistakes. |
Originally posted by Josh Hinkle Yep. That's why I say they have to make some huge mistakes to lose their lead. |
Looks like a good time for them to go software exclusive. -ohbfrank-
MS and Sony CAN'T really lower their prices much more, can they? They are currently losing money on every console. Is Nintendo still turning a profit at $99? |
Nintendo never releases their costs, so theres no way to know. I'd guess they are close to breaking even on them, either losing a little or making a little on each one.
|
Josh,
I'd argue that they're definitely losing money on each console sold. The PowerPC chip in there is atleast $50 even if purchased in bulk, add in to that the drive,ATI graphics card, RAM, casing, etc, I'd say there's definatley more than 100 worth of parts in there. Either way, the software is where the money's at. Buy $100 worth of games and they've recouped their loss. Chances are people will want more than two cube games. |
Originally posted by rfduncan Hey - with some solid GC exclusive titles now out and price reduced (Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime) and their sequels in the works, GCN could make a surprising leap. BTW I played Viewtiful Joe at BB today at lunch - that game ROCKS! :D:thumbsup: [John Lennon]Viewtiful, viewtiful, viewtiful.....viewtiful Jooooeeeeee [/John Lennon] |
Originally posted by Josh Hinkle Jack, and I, are saying they have no realistic chance of overtaking them in the foreseable future period. Not just htis generation. |
Originally posted by Decker I'm fairly certain that if the PS2 or Xbox dropped to $119.99 tomorrow, a lot more units would sell. I'm sure both Sony and MS are aware of that yet have their reasons (sound or not) for staying put right now. Even if Sony and MS knew for a fact their sales would increase by a factor of 4 if they dropped their prices, it doesn't mean they would do it, especially if they are losing money already on each console sold at $179.99. In reality, Sony doesn't have to lower its prices as it is by far the leader in this race and will continue to sell consoles on reputation alone. If anyone has reason to fear the Nintendo price drop, it has to be MS. Especially if Gamecube sales continue at anywhere near this pace. |
Originally posted by The Franchise Quadrupled from what I wonder? Week to week? Month to month? Day to day? Nintendo: GameCube Sales Quadrupled in Past Week Thu Oct 2, 4:01 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo! SEATTLE (Reuters) - Sales of Nintendo (news - web sites). Co. Ltd.'s GameCube video game machine quadrupled in the first week after it slashed the U.S. price of the console of $99, the U.S. arm of the Japanese video game company, said on Thursday. Nintendo, which cut the price of the GameCube on Sept. 24, said it sold 61,000 consoles during the week following the price cut, up from weekly average sales of 15,000 during August and September. "I think it will be sustained (until the Holiday season)," George Harrison, Nintendo of America senior vice president of marketing, told Reuters. Nintendo said in a statement that more than 100 new titles will be available before the end of the year. Nintendo's price cut made the GameCube $80 cheaper than its two competitors, Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites).'s market-leading PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) and Microsoft Corp.'s second-place Xbox (news - web sites), both of which start at $179. -------------------------------------- It's way too early to say if this surge will last through the holidays. |
Originally posted by madcougar If anyone has reason to fear the Nintendo price drop, it has to be MS. Especially if Gamecube sales continue at anywhere near this pace. Isn't that the real figure that console makers are after. More market share can obviously help a console maker sell more games in total, but assuming console makers are losing money on each console (which we are not sure of in the case of Nintendo), the software sell through rate becomes even more important for making a profit. Personally I'd like to see the industry stay competitive and continue the price competition. Hopefully all 3 console makers can stay in it and manage to make a profit. |
Originally posted by sniper308 I thought I had read somewhere that the X-Box had higher sell through rates (software title sales per console) than the Gamecube did. Isn't that the real figure that console makers are after. More market share can obviously help a console maker sell more games in total, but assuming console makers are losing money on each console (which we are not sure of in the case of Nintendo), the software sell through rate becomes even more important for making a profit. Personally I'd like to see the industry stay competitive and continue the price competition. Hopefully all 3 console makers can stay in it and manage to make a profit. |
I thought I had read somewhere that the X-Box had higher sell through rates (software title sales per console) than the Gamecube did. |
Originally posted by Galanthas Microsoft hasn't and will not make a dime in profit this generation no matter what the software titles sales per console is. Microsoft is all about gaining marketshare this generation. |
Originally posted by sdcrym That's what we've all heard over and over, but how does Microsoft allowing an $80 price gap between the XBox and GameCube fit into this strategy? If all they're trying to do is gain market share, without regard to profitability, it makes sense that they'd be the first to drop the price. It has been stated a few times that Microsoft doesn't consider itself to be in competition with Nintendo, only Sony, so I suppose they don't care what Nintendo does for the most part, but if Sony dropped the Ps2 in price then Microsoft would follow suit. |
There's no way that, as the stores close on Christmas Eve, that the shelves will still have a $179 Xbox and $179 PS2 sitting next to a $99 Gamecube.
Except for the new Nintendo owners who already have an Xbox, each Gamecube sale is one lost potential Xbox buyer... we're not talking early adopters almost irrationally rabid about videogames now. They just bought one console; they're not buying another. MS is going to just let people flock to Gamecube, without a fight, on THE single most critical factor for the next, most important 12 weeks of the year? I don't think so. At some point, they're going to have to forget about sitting back and matching a Sony price drop. They're going to have to be the ones to do it. If enough weeks go by, the decision to not follow Nintendo's lead will supplant Xbox's initial European price as Microsoft's dumbest as a hardware provider. |
Originally posted by sniper308 I thought I had read somewhere that the X-Box had higher sell through rates (software title sales per console) than the Gamecube did. Isn't that the real figure that console makers are after. Source The next set of figures on today's release regards attach rates - the amount of games owned per person, per console, averaged: Gamcube: 5.7 Xbox 5.8 PS2 7.1 |
Great job for Nintendo, I'm happy to hear they're doing better
|
Originally posted by jeffdsmith Yep, but not by much. Source The next set of figures on today's release regards attach rates - the amount of games owned per person, per console, averaged: Gamcube: 5.7 Xbox 5.8 PS2 6.1 |
Originally posted by chrisih8u Looks like Im exactly average. I have 5 gamecube games plus Super Mario Sunshine. LOL!!! |
You know, I already have a Gamecube (Purchased the first week it came out). My policy ever since I was given my ColecoVision back in the day was to own two of every console I purchase. As a backup in the years to come and to show my kids 20 years from now.
That being said, I jumped on the WalMart Platinum bundle deal with the GBA Player and I was surprised to see The Zelda Ocarina of Time Disc and the Viewtiful Joe/Splinter Cell/Billy Hatcher/Sonic Demo packaged as well! I definately feel like Nintendo is really giving the consumers an incredible deal and being a long time supporter I wanted to help out. Even with that said I still want a Black GameCube and the Ellusive Panasonic Q. :) 2 GameCubes, 1 GBA, 1 GBA Player, 34 Gamecube games. Am I average? |
Originally posted by GatorDeb I think Nintendo is playing this out brilliantly. Welcome back, Nintendo! :up: I think this is the beginning of Nintendo being neck and neck with Sony and maybe edging out in the next console war. |
Originally posted by The Franchise Actually they're not the same. Did they quadruple compared to yesterday? Did they quadruple compared to a week last month or a day last month. Depending on what period of time you're comparing to, the results can be drastically different. You don't think they'd just take any arbitrary day and use that as a basis for their increase in sales would you? They can just take the lowest sales day and say "sales have jumped 9,746% since the price drop". |
damn, losing 4x as much money on consoles AND throwing $50 mil down the tubes as well? yikes. must be nice to have money to waste.
j |
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:24 AM. |
Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.