whoa is nintendo....get ready to hear death and destruction being preached by everyone......but i will give the death preachers this much......i really think nintendo needs to step up to the plate......they just need to make a bigger variety of games, and i realy think they should start investing in some smaller development houses like retro and silicon knights.....honestly now...those are two great nintendo names to have under their belt, but they need more.....and i hate to say it, but they need developers that are willing to do more "mature" titles. i mean they didnt even reach half their projected sales....that is pretty sad if u ask me....m$ on the other hand is claiming to have sold 9 million units during their fisical year. so nintendo has sold something like 8 million cubes worldwide, that is not enough after being out a year and a half. they really need to step up to the plate and deliver hard in 2003 and 2004. they have some great titles, but they really need to start to invest for their future cuz at this rate, i dont think the gc will sell as well as the 64. i know the gamecube has its glory days ahead of it, but nintendo needs to get a few more 1st and 2nd party people so that they can have....a0 more exclusive content and b) more mature content

Uh...nolimit? When you mean "mature" titles, what exactly do you have in mind? Something along the lines of Grand Theft Auto?

Screw "Mature". I'd be all up for longer games. If Pikmin 2 is another 10 hour game I'm going to kick Miyamoto in the head myself. Also we need these games to be hard. Zelda:WW was too easy. Remember the original Zelda? That was a fairly hard game, you were in real danger of dying fairly often (to speak nothin of Zelda 2). In the days of the NES games where hard. Now that we have the room and technology to have things like graphics, and plot, and stuff suddenly it's okay to beat a game easily?

My point is Nintendo has one and only one thing behind it: Old Sk00l. It has the old school charectors, the old school attitude, and the old school innovation. If they go around attempting to be like PS2 they're going to lose market share, not gain it. People do not buy Gamecubes because they have Mortal Kombat and sports games, they buy gamecubes because of Mario, Metroid, Zelda, ED. Things that are definatly not PS2 style games.

I don't think Nintendo will ever be #1 again. The day video games went Mainstream was the day Nintendo lost it's advantage. But the old school, the hardcore, and the gamer looking for something different will always find what they're looking for in Nintendo if nintendo can just resist the temptation to conform to Sony's lead as Microsoft has done.

Something does NOT add up here?!
One source says something different from the other, look at this:

$4.2 billion sales (profit=$547 million) VERSUS $4 billion sales (profit=$550 million)

Man...I agree, they're in trouble! The JUST made 500 million dollars!! Yikes, that's so little, they'll be out of money tomorrow!

Th1$ me@n$ th@t n0w N1ntend0 will have to make g@mez fer Micro$oft n0w! T000 bad!

Feh. Who cares. When you have games like Zelda and Mario to play with, who cares if you're in first place or last place. I'm a Red Sox fan, but do I care that they will probably never win the World Series? No.

I think it's stupid of people to keep saying we need more "Mature" titles. Exactly what do you mean by, "Mature"? A game with blood n' guts, running over people with cars and boobies? Yeah, THAT's what I'd call "Mature". They should probably come up with an "Immature" rating. I've been playing through The Wind Waker, and that game is easily more "Mature" than anything Rockstar could pull out of their butts.

And I am so sick of people complaining that Nintendo makes their games too easy. Just six months ago, the same people were complaining that Mario Sunshine was tooo hard, and now they're complaining that Zelda is tooo easy. It's like you're just looking for something to gripe about.

Sorry, if I seems so crabby, but I just woke up...

well its not a matter of what place they are in, its a matter of how much money they make.....and all though they still make more then sony and m$, they didnt meet their forcasts, and they didnt even get close to reaching their sales forcasts. they need to make some mature titles to broaden their user base. i mean that is the one thing nintendo is missing. they have the cheaper console and the great games, they just need some more mature titles to compliment them. i mean i am happy either way, but from a biznas standpoint, u want to stay ahead of the crowd, and do somehting great. i mean nintendos old franchies have been hit pretty hard.....many say mario has been out done, as well as donkey kong and some others. they need some fresh new franchies, and the one thing they havent really gotten into is mature themed titles. maybe they should make a few rpgs, or try some ninja games.

nintendo has plenty of mature titles in my opinion (i mean 90% of the games are shared by all three systems anyway), i think it would be hard to name 5 mature titles for ps2 or xbox that are even worth porting over to the cube. if that's the truth, then you can't really argue that the cube is failing due to a lack of 5 to 10 games.

as for games being difficult, zelda ww should be easier for you then the original, you were 15 years younger when the old zelda came out, play it now and i think you'll find it quite easier then you remember. with zelda (and other games) it becomes difficult to make a game enjoyable for both 30 year olds and 10 year olds. i see the same issue with the new star wars movies, trying to please a large age gap becomes increasingly difficult the larger the gap. zelda branches that gap quite well in my opinion. on the contrary metroid was geared a little more for the older generation.

i, along with a lot of people i know, also enjoy easier games at our age (I am 28). We just don't have the time due to real life and work, and the easier games are easier to enjoy. Eternal Darkness was a fan favorite of ours since it had a great story, decent length, great gameplay, and the ability to save at any time (as long as no baddies in the room), a perfect game over the past year and a gamecube exclusive.

imho, nintendo's primary issue isn't mature titles, number of games, type of games, it was the n64. it set them back a long time by sticking with a cartridge system and fell quickly to the cd systems. i have xbox and cube and my buddies have ps2, out of all our systems we 'enjoy' the cube the most. they have the best quality games, an extremely comfotable joystick, and great first party games (something that sony and microsoft just don't really do).

the cube is the best system i've had since my dreamcast (which failed due to the saturn), i think nintendo will have a tough time forever with the cube no matter what they do (as did the dreamcast), bt once their next gen console comes out I think they'll be in a better position. i also think the games that are coming out now are extremely stale, but that's another point for another day

just enjoy your cube and don't think its greener on the other side of the fence, cuz its not

actually, it's "greener" when you remove the fences entirely (a.k.a. going multiplatform)

Yes, Nintendo is in trouble, and it's no longer a question of whether or not they should produce more exclusives...they absolutely must if they intend to make it through this generation and the next.

Hmm, on second thought, rather than waste time griping about Nintendo's slouching sales, why don't we take a more active step? Buy Nintendo products! (duh)

well its is true that the gamecubes main problem is image which was put there a lot by the 64. but i maintain the stance that indeed the gamecube success is indeed inhibited by 3-5 games that just arent there. i mean the xbox had splitter cell and halo....(i know the cube and ps2 are getting splitter cell, but the game wont sell consoles for either)....the ps2 has a few big sellers namely the gta series......if nintendo could get a fresh new series that would appeal to the main stream audience, then thats all they would need. the cube does have many good mature titles, but none are fresh enough to start a revolution that will sell consoles. i am not griping or complaining, i am just stating facts. and having all consoles is great if u are a millionare, but for me thats unrealistic and a waste. i am just saying what nintendo needs, and none of the games on the cube(or even any of the games that i see in the future lineup) will do that for the cube. xbox got lucky that its best game was avalible at launch....the ps2 is successful because it was avalible like a year and a half before anything else......while the cube remains the console with great games, but nothing that has been able to be called a system seller. smash brother melee is the closest thing to being a system seller at this point. and zelda helped out in the us. the cube does need a system seller, and if it ever comes, it will probably need to be in the form of a mature title.

the huge thing that hurts nintendo is its "kiddie" image. i agree that gc does have a lot of good mature games but the problem is that most people dont know that and wont bother to find out. i wish this wasnt so.

also i want to clear this up nolimit19. before u said that nintendo needs to get more first party and 2nd party people, but u can only say get more second party people cuz 1st party people are the company who owns the console. i just wanted to clear that up.

and what about metroid prime? that was one of the best games ever. so is Zelda. i think that those are very big system sellers, but again, most people dont bother to find out about these great games.

Lots and lots of buzz going around. Gotta love that passion!

Anyway, I gotta chime in and say that its kind of odd how good ol' Nintendo did some serious pushing in March in the US (GBA SP, Pokeman Ruby and Saphire, Da Wind Waker) and boasting about it. Next thing you know "oopsie, we didn't reach our goal."

If they know they didn't reach their goal, they know what they have to do. If the guys on top are going "OH MY GOD! What are we EVER going to do?" They don't deserve to be there. They know they have to roll up their silk sleeves and start taking it to the man errrr the competition.

It ain't over until they say Die...

I hate to say it, but this could be good for Nintendo.

I'll bring in a quote from Robin Hood: Men in Tights -

Quote

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A toll is a toll, and a roll is a roll. And if we don't get no tolls, then we don't get no rolls.

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Be all you can be in the Nintendo Marines! ((Yeah I know the slogan I took is from the US Army not the Marines))

I would have to agree with that Nintendo could use "fresher" franchises to spark some popularity. However, I would like to return to an era where games were a lot tougher than they once were. I expect a challenge for my money! Once I earn the right to play Metroid Prime on hard mode, I'll have the time of my life (well that and I might have to buy an extra controller just in case the other one...ahem...is accidently stomped on the ground mercilessly.)

Ahem.... Let me clear something up.... The 8 million X-boxes sold (as given in the press release) are the TOTAL # of X-boxes sold since it came out. The figure of 5.6 million GCs sold is ONLY For the last fiscal year, NOT total GC sales since it was released. Also, the Ps2 sold it's 50 millionth piece of software just a few months ago, yet Nintendo's already at the 45 million mark, even though Sony has a much larger userbase, plenty of more games, and a 1-1.5 year head start. Nintendo is doing FINE, people.