The discs used for Gamecube have NOTHING to do with third party support. Companies like Konami are not DVD manufacturers. Production of thin pieces of plastic with a little paint on them costs very little and is done by professional manufacturers. The exact same data on a DVD can be converted and stored on a GC dvd in about ten seconds.
The only difference is that GC discs offer copy protection. It is still not possible to distribute cheaply produced copies of gamecube games. This means that anybody who wants to play Resident Evil Zero has to pay for it in some form or another. This is not true with XBOx and particularly Playstation. It is a HUGE INCENTIVE for game developers and will become a bigger incentive over the next year as DVD copying becomes more widespread. As you may recall, PSX had a few good years in it before everyone could copy games. Once that happened, everywhere you looked people had books full of Playstation CDR's.
As this was going on, Nintendo was publishing games like Zelda in copy-proof format. Zelda went on to sell MILLIONS of copies. Nintendo reaped a HUGE profit and other developers took note.
Now, with music CD's, copying and online distribution has actually INCREASED sales of non-pirated versions. This has to do with COST. A music CD only costs $10-20 US. A video game on the other hand usually costs $40. Big difference. Is that booklet worth fourty bucks? No, it's not. And it's on sale on ebay for seven.
The problems with shelf-space and stocking have EVERYTHING to do with Sony and Microsoft's business practices. Blockbuster and EB are not exactly impartial companies. they are corporate mobsters with EXTREMELY POOR TRACK RECORDS IN THE ARENA OF CUSTOMER SERVICE. Blockbuster, for example, was nailed in court for systematically charging late fees randomly for about TEN YEARS. For some reason people think these guys are a good, upright company. They are simply LYING when they say that "gc games are kiddy, they don't rent well, etc." They are being payed off.
Now let me explain a bit about Sony's advantage in the retail arena. Sony publishes music, movies AND video games. This means that they can group these items together (this is called a monopolistic practice) and use their size to "encourage" retailers into supporting them in ways that would ordinarily be stupid for the retailers themselves. Microsoft is well known for doing this very thing in the software world. Nintendo has in the past dabbled in such dealings, as well. This is the way of corporate business.
The key to all of this is realizing that Nintendo is in a DIFFERENT BUSINESS than Sony and Microsoft. Sony and Microsoft are competing for the living-room box of the future that will control your cable, internet, video games, movies, etc. They see a one-of-akind box in the future and both want to control it. Sony wants to control it because they are CONTENT PROVIDERS, meaning if they own the hardware they can use it to push their content, making them tons of money. Microsoft wants to control it because they are a SOFTWARE MAKER, meaning they can control the software that drives the thing and make tons of money on that side of the deal. BOTH are using the BOX as a means of gaining an AUDIENCE. This is essentialy the dot-com business model of find an audience at whatever cost and then try and sell them on a product.
it doesn't work.
Nintendo, on the otherhand, is a video game company. They make a video game console and video games to play on it. They license the rights for other cmpanies to make games for their console, too. It is OPTIMIZED for video game playing. If you understand computer hardware and software you understand that a DVD player is not the ideal way of playing video game software. Nintendo offers a superior VIDEO GAME platform to companies who seek to make VIDEO GAMES. Video game publishing is a cuthroat business and companies have to do what is best for their survival at any given time. For the past few years that has meant cozying up to Sony and Microsoft and making as much cash as possible off the PS2. In the coming years, as Sony and MS move away from video games, this will change. This is why you see INCREASING support for the gamecube from third parties. They are getting teams of programmers familiar with the Nintendo hardware for future production.
Anyway, realize that this is all very complicated business and it is not all that it appears to be. Companies like Microsft, Sony and Nintendo are planning for ten and fifteen years down the road right now. Bill Gates doesn't think about 2003 when he plans his next move, he thinks about 2015. NONE of these companies are STUPID, SHORT-SIGHTED or NEW IN THE GAME.
Try and think about ten years ago. Chances are very good that you had never even HEARD of the internet. Now imagine what will be happening ten years from now. After you've thought about that for a bit, go back to your Gamecube and Playstation and XBox and really look at what you have to PLAY for those systems. You should notice a very stark difference between the GC offerings and the PSX and XBOX ones. There is a a reason for this. These differences will continue to widen.
I asked a friend recently what the best part of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was, eg I couldn't figure out why he liked playing it so much. He thought about it and concluded that what he liked best was the radio stations. Think about that for a little while...
Topic: No wonder M titles aren't selling (Read 31065 times)
