Big news (and good news at that) for Australian GameCube owners - seeing that Nintendo themselves won't compete with Sony and Microsoft, Electronic Arts has decided to step in and lower prices of their own games, effective immediately. Here's what they had to say:

Effective immediately Electronic Arts are leading the industry in establishing new, lower, local pricing for Nintendo Gamecube Software. Electronic Arts wide range of top-selling titles for the Gamecube will now be available at prices starting as low as $39.95 making hit games including the new James Bond 007: Nightfire™, Medal of Honor: Frontline™, Simpson’s Road Rage™, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2™ and FIFA 2003™ more affordable than ever.

Bob Katz, Managing Director of Electronic Arts commented; “With younger games players clearly being Nintendo’s traditional domain, the feedback we’re constantly receiving from consumers and retailers alike is that lower pricing is desperately needed to give the Gamecube a boost in Australia. Given Nintendo’s disappointing reluctance to compete with Microsoft and Sony, Electronic Arts are leading the way in helping to ensure that hit Gamecube titles are accessible and affordable to the general public”.

The new pricing has been enthusiastically welcomed by Australian retail who have been pressing Nintendo to reduce their hardware and software pricing for some time.

Scott Teal, Senior Buyer for Kmart's Interactive Division added; “This aggressive move by Electronic Arts could well prove to be the catalyst needed to kick start sales of Nintendo Gamecube hardware. The Gamecube’s universally acknowledged as being technically equal to or better than other next generation consoles in the market, this new, low, software pricing will benefit new and existing Gamecube owners alike”.

This is really great news for GameCube owners - a Nintendo made GameCube game is priced at around $90 on average, while 3rd party games can sometimes be priced at $100. EA is INCREDIBLY smart to perform a move like this - logic dictates that a lot more of their software will sell if it's more than half the price than that of the competition.

In other news, Nintendo has officially released The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords today, so you should be able to find a copy. This also means that all of Nintendo's main holiday titles for the year have been released, so don't expect anything from Nintendo themselves till about March, when Metroid Prime is rumoured to be released.