GameCube Outselling PS2 and Xbox in America

December 2, 2003, 10:04 am EST
Total comments: 44

Black Friday was very, very good to Nintendo.

NINTENDO GAMECUBE HITS NO. 1

Combines with Game Boy Advance to Sell More Than 1 Million Systems During Thanksgiving Week

REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 2, 2003 – After rocketing up the charts the past several weeks, the Nintendo GameCube™ has now reached No. 1 – it's America's top-selling home video game console, according to direct sales data from the nation's leading retailers. Nintendo GameCube sold more than half a million systems to consumers during Thanksgiving week, easily surpassing its console competitors. Among all game devices, it trailed only Nintendo's portable Game Boy® Advance, which sold almost 600,000 units to U.S. buyers during the week.

"All along, our business plan for this year was to maximize consumer interest and sales during the fourth quarter," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "But frankly, we're overwhelmed by how successful we've been. Our price cut of Nintendo GameCube has ignited sales to the degree that it may turn out to be the best-selling console for the entire month of November. We're tracking to sell more systems in the last eight weeks of the year than we did in the previous 10 months combined."

Nintendo GameCube went from No. 3 to No. 1 in just two months, evidence that the Sept. 25 price drop to an MSRP of $99.99 and the hot new games were just what the public wanted. The library of games available for Nintendo GameCube now stands at more than 320, including America's current hottest game, Mario Kart®: Double Dash™ exclusively for Nintendo GameCube, role-playing and sports games, Pokémon titles for younger players and action and racing games for adults.

Numerous new and upcoming releases that will keep the momentum going include 1080°®: Avalanche, a shred-'em-up snowboarding game; Mario Party® 5, the ultimate party game; F-Zero® GX, the fastest racing game on the market; Mario Golf™: Toadstool Tour, a golf game that appeals equally to novices and experts; Pokémon Channel™, the first-ever Pokémon game available for Nintendo GameCube; and Final Fantasy®: Crystal Chronicles™, an upcoming role-playing game that continues the hit franchise.

Talkback

nitsu niflheimDecember 02, 2003

All I can say is way to go Nintendo. I hope all those dumbass developers that dropped the GCN are taking notice. The little system you said wasn't worth developing for is outselling the cool systems. And to further rub it in, it outsold them on the biggest shopping day of the year.

Gibdo MasterDecember 02, 2003

I hope those stupid analyst that constantly spell doom for Nintendo take notice too.

I'm just overjoyed to hear about this though. It's nice to not be on the losing team for once. I just hope that all these people that are buying the GC up will buy the next console too.

Ian SaneDecember 02, 2003

This is pretty good news. It's nice to see that the sales jump from the price drop isn't just temporary and will hopefully last until Christmas. Still this only number 1 for current sales so don't everyone be spamming message boards with "Nintendo is number 1!! In you face Sony!"

thecubedcanuckDecember 02, 2003

This really is amazing news and should really open the eyes of third party developers. I for one never thought this was possible, it is nice to be wrong.

nolimit19December 02, 2003

this is crazy...i thought it would out sell xbox, but ps2.....thats a big suprise to me. if it comes out of this christmas as the best selling console, i think all those nay sayers should hit themselves in the head with their xbox and ps2s right now.

joshnickersonDecember 02, 2003

Hmm, I'm sure the $79 Zelda bundles they had at Wal-Mart that day had something to do with it... I saw people walking away with one in each hand...

KDR_11kDecember 02, 2003

MKDD is "America's hottest current game"? Oh, god, quality standards really fell.

manunited4eva22December 02, 2003

Wow, just wow, that is just very amazing to me.

OO7craftDecember 02, 2003

This is good news but.......

whats with nintendo? every week the manage to outsell ps2 they boast about it. well u know what, Sony did not boast when it kicked your A$$ the other 40 something weeks of the year.

altho this is good news.. they still lost these console wars by a huge margin. Lets just hope nintendo fixes them selves up and actually starts listening to what the public wants, rather then throw stuff on them they dont want *CoughGBAconectivityCough*.

Avinash_TyagiDecember 02, 2003

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MKDD is "America's hottest current game"? Oh, god, quality standards really fell

Umm just because you didn't like it doesn't men anything.

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altho this is good news.. they still lost these console wars by a huge margin.

Its called a one year head-start,if GCN and Xbox had launched with Sony the race would be much closer.

MarioDecember 02, 2003

O____O

500,000 in a week?!?!

YES! This is excellent! WOOHOO! Yay! OMG, just, YES!

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Originally posted by: KDR_11k
MKDD is "America's hottest current game"? Oh, god, quality standards really fell.

MKDD is an awesome game.

jasonditzDecember 02, 2003

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Originally posted by: OO7craft
This is good news but.......

whats with nintendo? every week the manage to outsell ps2 they boast about it. well u know what, Sony did not boast when it kicked your A$$ the other 40 something weeks of the year.

That's because there aren't a hundred million fanboys claiming Sony is doomed every week.

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altho this is good news.. they still lost these console wars by a huge margin.

By whose standards? They've made a ton a money off of the cube, and a ton more off the GBA.

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Lets just hope nintendo fixes them selves up and actually starts listening to what the public wants, rather then throw stuff on them they dont want *CoughGBAconectivityCough*.

Lets examine this rationally. Microsoft has lost literally billions of dollars "giving the public what it wants". Nintendo made over $400,000,000 last year... and everyone is pushing for them to change their strategy.

RobageejamminDecember 02, 2003

i call it the...thats not a tear in my eye....plan

jasonditzDecember 02, 2003

I'm surprised you guys didn't mention the image nintendo released along with the story

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/5/0,3363,sz=1&i=50782,00.jpg

Myxtika1 AznDecember 02, 2003

omfg, that image is hilarious. i couldn't stop laughing for a whole minute.

OO7craftDecember 02, 2003

hey whats the deal with my icon? I never realized It was not allowed?

and to defend myself b4... like I said, Just because they make a profit doesnt mean they won the war. And MS lost nothing. True they didnt make as much as nintendo but they still made profit. As long as they make $1 profit they have lost nothing. Like i said b4 with the whole GBA conectivity. Its all about money and greed. its not innovative.. Its a freaking scam to get us to pay more $ to nintendo. Nintendo is just concerened with making 1000000000000000%%%% profits and thats why they don't give the public what they want. The public wants stuff that is fun but doesnt make millions for the companies, therefore this is why nintendo made more $ then x-box.

tho I would much rather own a console that caters to my demands (public) and not thos of managment who are only intreasted in making money. You think the guy who first thought up of gamecube to GBA conectivity was thinking "I wonder what would be fun for players to interact with"? NO.. That was his 2nd thought. His first was "What would be a great way to make money".

I hate nintendo with a passion... And your probably wondering why I own a gamecube and come to nintendo msg boards... Well that is because I grew up with Nintendo and I will not abandon them after they make a few mistakes (late n64,Gamecube). I will continue to buy nintendo products and one day hope they pull themselves back together and become the leaders they once were in the NES/SNES days.

Myxtika1 AznDecember 02, 2003

I don't think that they're not in it to win any 'war'. You're right that they're in it for the money, is that a crime? They want their company to succeed financially, what's wrong with that? Would you mind giving me a million dollars? I would really like that. Since I'm part of the public, it's what the public wants. Please help.

And you think losing billions of dollars and only making $1 back is worth it? How about you give me $1 million dollars, and I'll give you $10 back. It'll be totally worth it, cuz you'll still be getting something back. Again, it is what I (the public) want. Throwing money around blindly is stupid, and I'm pretty sure that if Microsoft does not have as much money as it does, the Xbox would have been discontinued months ago.

As for your comment on connectivity not being innovative. I find it funny because I'll be picking up Pac-Man Vs. tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait.

Bill AurionDecember 02, 2003

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hey whats the deal with my icon? I never realized It was not allowed?

Read the ToS...64x64 is the max size allowed...

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Like i said b4 with the whole GBA conectivity. Its all about money and greed. its not innovative.. Its a freaking scam to get us to pay more $ to nintendo.

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Nintendo is just concerened with making 1000000000000000%%%% profits and thats why they don't give the public what they want. The public wants stuff that is fun but doesnt make millions for the companies, therefore this is why nintendo made more $ then x-box.

I've gotten most of everything that I've wanted...Please enlighten us to what "the public wants"...

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You think the guy who first thought up of gamecube to GBA conectivity was thinking "I wonder what would be fun for players to interact with"? NO.. That was his 2nd thought. His first was "What would be a great way to make money".

Considering that Miyamoto is a strong believer in connectivity, I highly doubt this...

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And your probably wondering why I own a gamecube and come to nintendo msg boards... Well that is because I grew up with Nintendo and I will not abandon them after they make a few mistakes (late n64,Gamecube). I will continue to buy nintendo products and one day hope they pull themselves back together and become the leaders they once were in the NES/SNES days.

This is quite possibly the most lame reason I have ever seen by someone for owning a system...You support a system because you like the games, not because of your hopes for it to become dominant in the industry...

jasonditzDecember 02, 2003

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Originally posted by: OO7craft
hey whats the deal with my icon? I never realized It was not allowed?

and to defend myself b4... like I said, Just because they make a profit doesnt mean they won the war. And MS lost nothing. True they didnt make as much as nintendo but they still made profit. As long as they make $1 profit they have lost nothing.

No, no... Microsoft didn't make a profit.

From Most Recent MSFT Quarterly Report: The home and entertainment division, that includes the Xbox video game machine, had an operating loss of $273 million on $581 million in revenue.

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Like i said b4 with the whole GBA conectivity. Its all about money and greed. its not innovative.. Its a freaking scam to get us to pay more $ to nintendo. Nintendo is just concerened with making 1000000000000000%%%% profits and thats why they don't give the public what they want. The public wants stuff that is fun but doesnt make millions for the companies, therefore this is why nintendo made more $ then x-box.

Ummm.... huh?

So the Gamecube made more money because its less fun, and not what the public wants?

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tho I would much rather own a console that caters to my demands (public) and not thos of managment who are only intreasted in making money. You think the guy who first thought up of gamecube to GBA conectivity was thinking "I wonder what would be fun for players to interact with"? NO.. That was his 2nd thought. His first was "What would be a great way to make money".

So are the public's only demands that the company loses money on the product? Hell, that's gotta put Microsoft wayyy out in front.

Pacman Versus looks plenty fun to me. God forbid it sells a few extra GBA/GC link cables though.

OO7craftDecember 02, 2003

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And you think losing billions of dollars and only making $1 back is worth it?.

erm? perhaps you need to look in the dictionary at the word "Profit" then rephrase your statement

and I do like the gamecube games. I just get dissapointed in lack of features in games that appear on GC. when ever they come on all 3 systems the cube is always missing an extra mode/feature that the x-box and ps2 versions have. and the few good 1st part games that come out is the reason I bought a gamecube. I never get those 3rd party games for GC tho cause like i said... thier always missing features.

And u say miyamoto likes conectivity huh? well thats his public image. He in it for the money too.

Berto2KDecember 02, 2003

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Originally posted by: OO7craft
hey whats the deal with my icon? I never realized It was not allowed?

and to defend myself b4... like I said, Just because they make a profit doesnt mean they won the war. And MS lost nothing. True they didnt make as much as nintendo but they still made profit. As long as they make $1 profit they have lost nothing. Like i said b4 with the whole GBA conectivity. Its all about money and greed. its not innovative.. Its a freaking scam to get us to pay more $ to nintendo. Nintendo is just concerened with making 1000000000000000%%%% profits and thats why they don't give the public what they want. The public wants stuff that is fun but doesnt make millions for the companies, therefore this is why nintendo made more $ then x-box.

Please show me one source that says Microsoft has made money on the Xbox. Good luck, because you won't find any. In every annual, quarterly, etc report, that whole division has reported loses. Not once have they said that the Xbox has been a profitable business. They have lost millions on the project in fact. It helps yourself look better if you don't say stuff like like they are fact, when the information isn't and old.

Of course Nintendo is concerned about making money, they are a business. That is the goal of any business. If they didn't, they then aren't in business anymore. Don't try to argue this with me either, you won't win.

BlkPaladinDecember 02, 2003

Microsoft hasn't seen any profit from the Xbox. For the last 2 years the department they are in has been in the red because of it. I doubt the Xbox made over $300million this year to counter-act the money it lost Microsoft. Then their is Xbox Live which continues to drag Xbox's revenue down.

There is two types of profit:
The first one is the money you see after the costs of production- (The Xbox losses money on each console to begin with and loses more when you factor in the incentives. Nintendo has seen a profit from it machine up until a few months ago.)
The second and more inportant Profit is the money you get after you paid all the expenses that you incurred to make the product which include R&D, Advertising, Labor, Materials, and related items. They are still about a year behind seeing anything in this area and with all they had to so far it seems they are going backwards in hopes that the second console will be what the PS2 has been this gen.

And Nintendo has seen more money made from the Gamecube in its life span than Sony has seen from the PS2 in its life span. (There was a 600 page report published a few months back that this site reported on and that is just for the Gamecube not factoring in the Gameboy.) So if you look at it from a business standpoint Nintendo is the in the #1 position in the industry.

Myxtika1 AznDecember 02, 2003

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Originally posted by: OO7craft
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And you think losing billions of dollars and only making $1 back is worth it?.

erm? perhaps you need to look in the dictionary at the word "Profit" then rephrase your statement

Look in the dictionary for what? Change my statement? Why? Regardless of what the definition of the word profit is, I was asking if you think that losing billions of dollars just to make a $1 profit is worth it. Personally, I think that's plain stupid.

Doctor Evil: Why make billions when we can make...millions?

Koopa TroopaDecember 02, 2003

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MKDD is "America's hottest current game"? Oh, god, quality standards really fell.

It is completely deserving of such a position.

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And u say miyamoto likes conectivity huh? well thats his public image. He in it for the money too.

The man is rich. He doesn't need any money. He is in it for the love of his craft, plain and simple. He is one of the few people in the industry who cares for the gamer, the real gamer.

You know, I don't think you have posted even one legitimate argument. Nothing you've said is true, so why don't you stop wasting your, and more importantly our, time.

KDR_11kDecember 03, 2003

Microsoft decided they want to monopolize the console market, so they put together the XBox. The first one wasn't really meant to be this all-dominating device. It was more or less an experiment. They will try again. And again. Until the beancounters stop them. I expect that to happen shortly after XBox Next is released. Imagine an ultimatum like "Okay, this one isn't selling well. You say that's because it's a first. Well, we give you one more chance, if we don't see any increase in profit by then I'm afraid we cannot afford further experiments in this direction".

BTW, why complain about connectivity? Noone forces you to use it. I don't bother with it myself and haven't encountered any problems so far.

thecubedcanuckDecember 03, 2003

"And MS lost nothing. True they didnt make as much as nintendo but they still made profit."

this couldnt be any further from the truth.

phil1984December 03, 2003

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Originally posted by: OO7craft

Look in the dictionary for what? Change my statement? Why? Regardless of what the definition of the word profit is, I was asking if you think that losing billions of dollars just to make a $1 profit is worth it. Personally, I think that's plain stupid.

Doctor Evil: Why make billions when we can make...millions?

This comment is actually pretty stupid when you think about it 007craft. If you have made $1 profit then you havn't
lost Billions of Dollars you have made $1. Sure you may have to spend Billions of dollars to get that $1 profit but you havn't lost those Billions of dollars to make a profit. You simply have a revenue of Billions of Dollars + 1 hence giving you $1 profit..... Damn this is making my head spin.....

Getting back on topic, this is really really good news for GameCube. Nintendo may even catch the Xbox in the USA before this console war is over.....

OO7craftDecember 03, 2003

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Originally posted by: phil1984
Quote
Originally posted by: OO7craft

Look in the dictionary for what? Change my statement? Why? Regardless of what the definition of the word profit is, I was asking if you think that losing billions of dollars just to make a $1 profit is worth it. Personally, I think that's plain stupid.

Doctor Evil: Why make billions when we can make...millions?

This comment is actually pretty stupid when you think about it 007craft. If you have made $1 profit then you havn't
lost Billions of Dollars you have made $1. Sure you may have to spend Billions of dollars to get that $1 profit but you havn't lost those Billions of dollars to make a profit. You simply have a revenue of Billions of Dollars + 1 hence giving you $1 profit..... Damn this is making my head spin.....

Getting back on topic, this is really really good news for GameCube. Nintendo may even catch the Xbox in the USA before this console war is over.....

um id didnt say that... your quoting the other guy with my name.. look back.. what your saying is what I was trying to say to him

jasonditzDecember 03, 2003

Except for that they didn't make as much as they spent on the Xbox, so "profit" is a totally inappropriate word to use to describe what happened.

OO7craftDecember 03, 2003

yes but I was quoted for what someone else said...

and i was trying to poin out to the other guy that if u lose 1 billion dollars and make only 1 dollar profit u in reality have made 1 billion and 1 dollars

Myxtika1 AznDecember 03, 2003

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Originally posted by: OO7craft
yes but I was quoted for what someone else said...

and i was trying to poin out to the other guy that if u lose 1 billion dollars and make only 1 dollar profit u in reality have made 1 billion and 1 dollars

Ok, I understand what you mean now. It's like Nintendo spending $100 to make a $50 profit off the Cube, and MS spending $400 to make -$100 on the Box (exaggeration -- I'm not sure what production cost was when both consoles came out).

The thing though, is that you would only have $1. Go through all that just to make one extra dollar than you started out with? Bah! If that's good enough for you and you think it's worth it, then so be it. I, on the other hand, would rather go with Nintendo and make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit.

manunited4eva22December 03, 2003

Your right about that point, but thats only a technicality in a bigger picture. Microsoft hasn't made a 1/1000000000000000000 of a cent from xbox. They have in fact lost several hundred million dollars. Revenues are how much they make before accounting for expenses. Their revenues thus far have always been grossly smaller than their expenses.

As for Myamoto being in it for the money, give me a break. If Shiggy left Nintendo do you have any idea the amount of money companies would offer to hire him? He could very very easily quadruple his income in the first offer. At that point it's not 'for the money,' it's for the art.

kennyb27December 03, 2003

Profit = Revenue - Expense

Microsoft has not made a profit on Xbox and especially not on Xbox Live, which I'm pretty sure has had a profit of $-2 million dollars (yeah, that's a negative profit).

thecubedcanuckDecember 04, 2003

MS does make a boat load on it PC products, and losing money on the Box is actually not a bad thing from a tax base stand point.

jasonditzDecember 04, 2003

If Microsoft is trying to lose money I can think of a lot better ways.

thecubedcanuckDecember 04, 2003

I didnt say they are trying to lose money. What I am saying is that for a company of MS's size, losing money in a few areas isnt as painful to the bottom line as some may think. Loses in one area can actually be made up for in the tax savings on the overall picture.
I doubt MS plans on losing in the end, I wouldnt doubt if this X-box gamble is givin a ten year window.

jasonditzDecember 04, 2003

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Originally posted by: thecubedcanuck
I didnt say they are trying to lose money. What I am saying is that for a company of MS's size, losing money in a few areas isnt as painful to the bottom line as some may think. Loses in one area can actually be made up for in the tax savings on the overall picture.
I doubt MS plans on losing in the end, I wouldnt doubt if this X-box gamble is givin a ten year window.

That's a good point. Microsoft did pay upwards of $4 billion in taxes last year.

Still, considering they've fallen from 2nd to 3rd in sales in the US and are still practically nonexistant overseas its gotta be frustrating to see how little return they're getting for eating hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

thecubedcanuckDecember 05, 2003

Not if you look at it over, say a 10 year period.
This is year 2, they have sold almost the same amount of consoles as a long time giant (NIN), from that perspective all isnt lost.

jasonditzDecember 05, 2003

Yeah, but if you compare it year over year they appear to be losing ground, not gaining.

ghostViDecember 05, 2003

One thing's good for the xbox, and that's brand recognition, everyone knows what an xbox is, most of the people think it's cool (nothing special there for me... $180 ... NO way, that's 5 (five!) GC games)... IMO that's what all those money were thrown at, financially there is no hope for them to recover what's lost until next gen, it's too close.

While I don't believe the situation fits the original plan (which was said to be a 5-year plan AFAIR.. don't quote me on this though) I'm sure they're going to use what they have, and give a shot with an even now starting to get popular xbox2. And a real console this time (designed as a console, from the grounds up, cost-effective, while maintaining competitive power).

nolimit19December 05, 2003

did someone complain that nintendo is in it for the money....the nerve of a business to want to make money. microsoft owns the world and you complain about nintendo making money.....batty, quite batty.

VideoGamerXDecember 07, 2003

Yes, let's scold all of those capitalist freeloaders living off our backs and draining us of our money while providing products we couldn't possibly get our hands on without them.