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Reggie: Nintendo Has Learned from its Mistakes with GameCube

biz.gamedaily.com — Reggie Fils-Aime, NoA's Executive VP of Sales & Marketing, talks about what went wrong with GameCube and how Nintendo is not making the same mistakes with Wii. He says the launch lineup for GameCube was not "diverse and strong enough from a first and third-party perspective," and by their showing at E3 2006, Wii will have many games at launch.

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  • macgabriel87, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21good. i think the gamecube was an good system. there were some bad games, and some really good ones. i wouldn't honestly admit to saying it was a failure, but if reggie says so and says he will do better, then im certaintly going to enjoy the wii way more.
    • chembro84, on 10/12/2007, -30/+5Dude you're 19, I'd hope your grammar and sentence structure would be better by now.
    • LawLSUVA, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18I think that acquiring Reggie was one of the best moves made by Nintendo in the last 10 years. He actually listens to the fans, and he seems to be a positive influence in the direction that Nintendo is moving.

      If you compare Nintendo's reputation before and after Reggie, there is a huge difference (for the better).
    • quamb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17agreed, it was a good system, though had 2 major flaws- lack of 3rd party support and little to no marketing.

      oh- and Reggie almost has a cult like following. It's weird.
    • samuraitux, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4okay the gamecube price is like the best price for a console ever. I got the one with the two controllers and a games for 99 dollars, and it was the best 99 bucks i ever spend. this is probably the greastest strenght that nintendo learned from the gamecube. sometimes charging things too much can destroy you (Sony anyone?) and if you charge it cheap everyone will buy it like the Wii (hopefully). the only thing that the gamecube didn't have was the games even though it did has the best first party support ever.
    • Sirocco, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I totally agree with quamb. It was/is a fine system with a well designed and comfortable controller, minimal load times for games, and more horsepower than a PS2. But in the war of "image" where I couldn't go for more than ten minutes without seeing an Xbox ad on TV (and now at the movies as well) there were painfully few Nintendo ads, just a few for Wind Waker, Paper Mario, and Metroid Prime 2.

      Oh, and the purple color scheme was a bad idea. Black, siler, or white would have worked... but Americans have this ingrained belief that anything colorful is a toy, and frankly that hurt the cube's ability to stay relevant in a society obsessed with that is "cool" on TV and what their neighbors are doing.
  • dallen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13I love my Gamecube, but it does appeal to a small audience. Whereas the Wii is intended to appeal to the widest possible audience. He's right though, its all about the games. If they stole Square back, they would kick Sony's ass( and take their name).
    • macgabriel87, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9the most overrated thing to say is when you are questioning the audience. who is the audience? it seems like everyone assumes the kid audience is just for 6-12, teen audience, 13-17 and so on. it seems like there's an invisible hand at work making up who belongs where! screw this system. the gamecube was fun for ANY player, ANY user, ANY age. like those lego boxes say... 6 and up. never does it say 6 to 15 or etc. gamecube was for everyone. i enjoyed it, my next door neighbor loves it.
    • Rayonic, on 10/12/2007, -10/+15I'm not sure the Wii will appeal to a really wide audience, actually. Despite Nintendo's stated goals, it won't appeal to the non-gamer. Why? Because:

      * The Wiimote is too radical of a concept for most people. They're already used to the functionality of regular gamepads (even if they don't use them much).

      * The games at E3 didn't seem especially easier to play with the Wiimote versus a regular gamepad. Sure, the Wii experience does seem to be new and fun, but the control schemes shown seem to be roughly as complex -- especially those games that used the nunchuck addon.

      * The Wiimote setup seemed... fiddly. You have to fiddle with it to get it set up correctly, much moreso than a regular gamepad. You place the sensor above or below the TV, maybe calibrate it, then have to adjust the sensitivity of the Wiimote because it varies depending on how far you are from the sensor. And if you (or your friends) sit at different spots in the room, you may have to adjust it quite often.

      Now, none of this should scare anyone reading Digg, but to the "casual gamer" it's another story. Nintendo may substantially increase their marketshare this generation, but tapping into the so-called unwashed masses is just a pipe dream.
    • itsmekirby, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14@Rayonic

      Although I agree with your last two points, I disagree with the first one.

      "* The Wiimote is too radical of a concept for most people. They're already used to the functionality of regular gamepads (even if they don't use them much)."

      Non gamers aren't used to gamepads and will likely find a physical movement in free space to be more comprehendable than a small rotation of a joystick. New concepts are required to bring in non-gamers since doing the same old thing obviously won't bring them in (or else they wouldnt be non gamers!)

    • zetsurin, on 10/12/2007, -13/+4Here we go again. An excellent, balanced and well-written piece by Rayonic has started to get dugg down, clearly for no reason other than the fact that it's not shining sunshine up Nintendo's arse! Dugg up to keep the bastards honest.
    • G3K0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Give the more credible people a second. He was dugg up.
  • TenebrousX, on 10/12/2007, -3/+27now he's NOA President!
    • TiMMY8765, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8why are people TenebrousX's comment down?
      Reggie is president of NOA now, not VP like the description says.
  • greenbox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6what did that third port of the bottom of the game cube do anyway? i mean i know the first two were for internet and coonecting to that gameboy advance port.
    • jerwong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nothing AFAIK. They took it out in the second version of the gamecube, along with the digital port.
  • jvux, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9a corporation learned a lesson! omfg, it's a miracle!
    • Photics, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Seriously... why's this like rocket science? If you're going to launch a system, launch it with good games!
  • cyrix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Reggie is like the Don King of the gaming industry. Now if only he'd sport the crazy fro too, I think I'd fall in love.
  • ScottMaximus, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3A corporation admits they made a mistake? this can't be. This must be a mirage made up by the Liberal Media.
  • synaesthesia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Im sure Nintendo will have many great launch titles, but it bothers me that Mario wont be one of them. I think its a mistake; SSBB and Mario Galaxy at launch would have kids selling plasma to buy a Wii (not that they'd have to sell much).
    • RandomSkratch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Woah I didn't know Mario wasn't a release title! I was hoping to get a Mario/Duck Hunt combo disc with the Wii. Something that I didn't even get when I got my first NES. Mine came with Hogan's Alley :-( I don't remember where my copy of Mario Bros came from.
    • zetsurin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I'll be more interested in buying a Wii (and I AM definitely thinking about it, the PS3 is a waste of money and MS are fantastic monopolists - no thanks!) if Mario _wasn't_ in the lineup. I'm quite tired of the Mario/Wario stuff. Give me something else anyday.
    • irriadin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Metroid Prime 3 and Zelda: Twilight Princess are coming out on launch day. It'll be the best Nintendo launch ever.
  • cully, on 10/12/2007, -20/+3oh come on. this story is on slashdot right now.
    • jvux, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16This story was posted before slashdot posted their story.
      This story was submitted around 8 hrs ago, at around 1pm.
      The slashdot story came around 4:41 pm.
      "Posted by Zonk on Thursday May 25, @04:41PM"
    • chembro84, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Does it really matter if it's on Slashdot, it's also on http://biz.gamedaily.com, it's probably on Google News and hundreds of other sites, some people only check out Digg, let's not start claiming "DUPE" because it's on other sites at the same time.
  • electroktan, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6Good! I hope that small $200-300+ million dollar profit taught Nintendo a lesson about the GameCube. We are so *disappointed* with that failure. I mean, we're expecting billion dollar profits here!
    • chembro84, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7That's what always cracks me up when people call the Gamecube a failure, it turned a profit, that's more than can be said about Xbox (and I am a huge Xbox fan)!
    • haruki, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5To electroktan: I believe the profit was closer to $1.2 billion.
    • Lososaurus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@chembro: The Xbox doesn't need to succeed per-se for Microsoft to reach it's goal. Microsoft wants to put a Microsoft PC or product in the living room(or turn the 360 into the multimedia center) and the Xbox is getting them there on that goal, so it's not a total loss.

      While the cube technically lost when it came to units sold, Nintendo did make a profit, while Sony and Microsoft had major financial losses. I love my Gamecube, but games ran a little dry around January of this year --I broke down and bought a PS2, I gotta say, there's some good RPG's on there(which is exactly what the 'Cube didn't have).
  • kaidovak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The lack of launch titles wasn't the problem, at least with myself and my friends, but the lack of DVD or network support was.
  • monofonk25, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2The gamecube was a failure (not a failure, but far from what nin hope it will be) because of the lack of third party support (and good games), and that won't change with the wii, the system will be almost only nintendo games again...

    It will be a succes though......
    • bnoj13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's not going to be only Nintendo games...haven't you seen the list of guaranteed third-party supporters for the Wii? And on top of that, haven't you seen how many of those companies already have games in development?
  • NeoTechni, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2I liked the cube, I like it a whole lot more than the Wii. Frankly, Nintendo found a whole bunch of new mistakes to make with Wii. And some of the same ones (instead of fighting against online, now its HDTV/graphics/Digital surround sound/normal controls/etc)
    • jnavarre, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1You like it more than something you haven't played yet? Seems logical.
    • NeoTechni, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I for one can't use the Wii controller very well. I have a genetic weakness in my wrists that make my hands shake a lot, thus Wii wouldn't be very accurate with me. Wii goes completely the wrong way for me. That and I find advances in AI/physics/multiplayer like 360 and PS3 are getting due to their massive processing power, much more impressive than a controller.
  • jerwong, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I think what Nintendo also learned that it needed to implement backwards compatibility, which was something that gave PS2 an edge. That, and mini-DVDs are a bad idea, as it led to some games requiring two discs.

    Don't get my wrong, I love my gamecube. In fact, I chose it over the other two consoles because of the games.
  • graizur, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5The only reason for him to say this is because it really looks like they will be making a lot of the same mistakes. No Mario launch, weakest hardware, ill defined on line experience, and a name that is easily made fun of.


    HOWEVER.

    They are doing a lot of things so so so right! Kick ass console design. Innovative game play control. Innovative (if unknown) on line possibilities. Multiple hardware possibilities.

    Enough to flip the script and make all the mistakes they are making seem like quirkiness. It's seduction 101.
    • otatop, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"weakest hardware"

      Are you high? The GameCube was almost on par with the Xbox, and crushed the PS2.
    • cmiller1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3if he were high he wouldn't be saying stupid ***** like that, he'd be playing some wonderful gamecube games :)
  • envy860, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Some pretty exciting stuff is coming from Nintendo. Tons of people know about the Wii, which can only help them. Sure, there might be problems solved and new problems, but there will never be a perfect anything. Atleast they're listening and trying to use some of our suggestions.

    If anything, atleast it's small and doesn't look like a George Forman grill.......
  • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2OMG, it's another front page Wii story! I didn't think there would be another one so soon! Maybe I should buy a Wii!

    TO POOP ON!
  • Fatality, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I honestly hated the Gamecube. I could never get used to playing it; I'm not sure if it was because of Super Mario Sunshine or the controller, but they definatly need to recognise than 3rd party support or lack of games as what went wrong.
  • piratearggghhh, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I really love how Nintendo is palming off Zelda as a launch title when it's a really late Gamecube game. Sorry, but the rest of the games look pathetic and it seems like everyone's so smitten over the controller to not notice or care. Where are the 3rd party games? What would be pretty cool is if GTA went on wii and you can literally walk up to people and smack em.
  • dragonopolis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I have a gamecube and I love it. Between it and my PC I found no reason to buy an Xbox. PS2 has some incredible RPG titles plus exclusive Titles that just seemed more balanced than exclusive titles on the Xbox. One of my favorite game titles are actually on the Xbox. One of my most favorite Arcade/Console games is DOA series. I just could not justify paying couple hundred dollars for a system with only one game that I thought was great titles. But everybody is different. If xbox 360 floats your boat then get. I, on the other hand, like more games on the xbox 360 such as Oblivion, GRAW, Call of Duty, but I can get these games on a PC. Again the number of games that are "next-gen" and are good that are exclusive to the Xbox 360 is small so I see no reason to buy a Xbox 360. The reason I'm keeping my eye on a PS3 is because I am in the market for an HD Movie Player and have decided that Blu-ray is a better format and has some Great Movie Companies backing it. Also it appears that the PS3 seems to inspiring new unheard of game titles and they all looking pretty good and the amount of PC Ports seem to be stressed less. Definitely after watching E3 I will continue my tradition as a PC/Nintendo mix in my home with the Possibility of maybe getting a PS3. It's bad enought that I got to save $400-$500 dollars so I can get a Direct X 10 card for my PC next year but should be well worth the investment.

    Nintendo has always had games for their system that seem to fill in the missing gap for fun. I hate the Kiddie title people place on Nintendo. I'm an adult and I love to play mario, zelda, Nintendo Puppies, Mega Man, Pikman, Pokemon or whatever games that are good that fall into cute/fun category.

    Can't wait till the end of the year so I can grab my Wii.

    Man ........ the console name just doesn't sound good at all no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise.
  • Purist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2That's what they said about N64 when Gamecube came out.
    • bnoj13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1but wasn't the N64 a success?

      (not sure about this, it just seemed so to me)
  • Ignitedude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1UK Wii Price Inline With USA And Japan

    http://sickr.wordpress.com/2006/05/26/uk-wii-price-inline-with-usa-and-japan/
  • dunstdunst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://wii-wii.us has some cool vids
  •  

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