Jonny takes a look at the exodus of third-party publishers from GameCube, and what Nintendo can do to stop it, both now and for the next console.

Nintendo practically invented the console licensing business with its Famicom/NES system in the 1980s. The idea was that Nintendo would design and manufacture a game system, market it to the public so that everyone wanted one, and make it irresistible to other game companies, who would want to sell their games to this rabid audience. Nintendo took in a licensing fee for each game sold on its system, but the games sold so well that licensees (third-party publishers) couldn’t afford not to cash in. This business model was operating on a much smaller scale with some earlier game consoles, like when Activision became the first third-party game creator for the Atari 2600, but Nintendo took it to a whole new level. The company was rationing cartridge production runs, censoring content for its American audience, and limiting publishers to a certain number of games each year.