Some people see the new GameCube price cut as a sign of weakness and a precursor to the system dying early. Jonny explains why the GameCube isn’t and won’t be another Dreamcast.

When it comes to system price cuts in the gaming industry, there are two basic patterns. First, all competing systems can cut their prices at the same time. These cuts tend to be reactionary rather than coordinated, but as far as consumers are concerned, it just means gaming is cheaper than before. The second type of price cut is unilateral (forgive the term), in which one system lowers its price and the others do not immediately follow.

Nintendo just took the second kind of price cut for their GameCube console, and it may be one of the best business decisions they’ve made this generation. System sales have skyrocketed, and people who never seriously considered this platform are now saying, “It’s hard to ignore an offer like this.” Yet whenever a move like this one is made in the industry, there are always pundits who mark it as a sign of weakness and even a mistake. They say GameCube is now so much cheaper than its competitors that people will compare the prices and assume something must be wrong or inferior with Nintendo’s system. Other critics even predict the cut as a sign that GameCube is headed the way of Dreamcast: a slow spiral into obscurity which will lead to the eventual abandonment of the platform.