Nintendo Gamecube

The Nintendo GameCube(GCN) (ニンテンドーゲームキューブ Nintendō Gēmukyūbu?) is Nintendo's fourth home video game console and is part of the sixth generation console era. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and predecessor to Nintendo's Wii. The Nintendo GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium, after several aborted forays by Nintendo into disc-based storage media. In contrast with the GameCube's competing consoles, the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, the GameCube uses miniDVD-based discs instead of full-size DVDs. As a result, it does not have the DVD-Video playback functionality of the Xbox and PlayStation 2, nor the audio CD playback ability of other consoles that use full-size optical discs. In addition, the GameCube also introduced a variety of connectivity options to Nintendo consoles, and was the third Nintendo console, after the Nintendo 64DD, to officially support online play. It also allowed for connectivity to the contemporary Game Boy Advance to access exclusive features of certain games. The console was released on September 14, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia. The GameCube sold 21.74 million units worldwide.[1] Nintendo ceased production of the console in 2007 and Madden 08 was considered to be the final GameCube game to be released in North America.

Marketing

Nintendo has used several advertising strategies and techniques for the GameCube. Around the time of release, the GameCube was advertised with the slogan "Born to Play." [3] The earliest commercials displayed a rotating cube video, which would morph into the GameCube logo. A female voice quietly said, "GameCube". This was usually after the normal commercial for a GameCube(GCN) game.[4] Subsequent ad campaigns had Nintendo advertising with a "Who Are You?" tangent to market the wide range of games Nintendo offers. The idea behind the "Who Are You?" campaign is that "you are what you play"; the kind of game a gamer enjoys playing suggests a dominant trait in that gamer's personality. The "Who Are You?" logo is similar to graffiti lettering. Most of the "Who Are You?" commercials advertised games developed or published by Nintendo, but some developers paid Nintendo to promote their games, using Nintendo's marketing and advertising resources.

Hardware

Like its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo GameCube was available in many colors. The two most common, released during the console's launch, were "Indigo" (the "default" color) and "Jet Black". Later, Nintendo released GameCubes with a "Platinum" color scheme, marketed as limited edition. "Orange Spice" GameCubes were also manufactured, but primarily only released in Japan; however, the standard controller was widely available in this color. The GameCube's model numbers, DOL-001 and 101, are a reference to its Dolphin codename.[5] The official accessories and peripherals have model numbers beginning with DOL as well. Also, other types of Nintendo hardware before and after the GameCube has its developer's codename as a model number. Another Dolphin reference, "Flipper" is the name of the GPU for the GameCube.[6] Panasonic made a licensed version of the GameCube with DVD playback, called the Panasonic Q. Benchmarks provided by third-party testing facilities indicate that Nintendo's official specifications, especially those relating to performance, may be conservative. One of Nintendo's primary objectives in designing the GameCube hardware was to overcome the perceived limitations and difficulties of programming for the Nintendo 64 architecture; thus creating an affordable, well-balanced, developer-friendly console that still performs competitively against its rivals.[7] The development hardware kit was called the GameCube NR Reader. Model numbers for these units begin with DOT. These units allow developers to debug beta versions of games and hardware. These units were sold to developers by Nintendo at a premium price and many developers modified regular GameCubes for game beta testing because of this. The NR reader will not play regular GameCube games but only special NR discs burned by a Nintendo NR writer.

Reception and sales

The GameCube sold nearly 22 million units during its lifespan,[1] lagging far behind the 140 million[22] PlayStation 2 consoles sold. The GameCube did not surpass its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, in sales and finished its generation slightly behind the Xbox, which sold 24 million units before being discontinued. Nintendo dropped support most recently. In September 2009, IGN named the GameCube the 16th best gaming console of all time