As the world spins, the Gamecube slowly dies

Take from gamespy.

RTX Red Rock GameCube Disappears
Prophet | 20:55 | Console

Lucas Arts has quietly removed any reference to the GameCube its third-person action game, RTX Red Rock (thanks HomeLAN). At this late hour we weren't able to get information from LEC on the fate of the GameCube game, but it is obvious that any reference to it has been removed from both its product page and the game's official site. The PlayStation 2 version of the game is still scheduled for a May 2003 release.

I recall this slowly happened with N64. Companies start dropping support, until the console goes bye bye.

Oh well. I''ll have to play it with load times then eh?

"Valcron" wrote:

Take from gamespy.

RTX Red Rock GameCube Disappears
Prophet | 20:55 | Console

Lucas Arts has quietly removed any reference to the GameCube its third-person action game, RTX Red Rock (thanks HomeLAN). At this late hour we weren''t able to get information from LEC on the fate of the GameCube game, but it is obvious that any reference to it has been removed from both its product page and the game''s official site. The PlayStation 2 version of the game is still scheduled for a May 2003 release.

I recall this slowly happened with N64. Companies start dropping support, until the console goes bye bye.

Lucas has had good sales on the Cube. I doubt this title will be removed.

It''d be a shame for the Cube to lose Red Rock, if only ''cause its using the same tech-base as Bounty Hunter, which leads me to believe that a GCN version would be way smoother than its PS2 counterpart. Ah well...as long as the gameplay is good and adventurey. C''mon Hal, I know you can do it.

Bad news, if true for, people who can only afford one system, but to be honest the absolute only reason I bought a GCN if for the fisrt party games anyway! It might seem kind of expensive for only a handful of games that I want to play, but those games are usually worth it.

Viva Cuba!

er..Cube!

I don''t think the GameCube will die. Nintendo better get into shape and give people more reasons to buy the cube. Online play could be huge for Nintendo. No other company has the franchises that would get hardcore gaming geeks to go online.

If Mario Kart isn''t online I''ll be unhappy.

So far it seems like MS is the only one who''s really pushing online play. Sony and Nintendo seem to be treating it as an afterthought. I think online capabilities have really helped out the X-Box, especially since it''s unique in being able to deliver downloadable content. Nintendo and Sony are almost going to have to include that capability in their next consoles to be able to compete.

Online play could be huge for Nintendo. No other company has the franchises that would get hardcore gaming geeks to go online.

If Mario Kart isn''t online I''ll be unhappy.

I don''t see that? Most of those franchises are rock solid single player games. I don''t see Nintendo ever being a big player with online capability. As a matter of fact I can only think of two games that I would really care to play online, Mario Kart and F-Zero.

I''m honesly curious what games you like to see Nintendo go online with?

"Drunkagain" wrote:
Online play could be huge for Nintendo. No other company has the franchises that would get hardcore gaming geeks to go online.

If Mario Kart isn''t online I''ll be unhappy.

I don''t see that? Most of those franchises are rock solid single player games. I don''t see Nintendo ever being a big player with online capability. As a matter of fact I can only think of two games that I would really care to play online, Mario Kart and F-Zero.

I''m honesly curious what games you like to see Nintendo go online with?

Pikmin, Mario Sports, SSB:M, Mario Kart, F-Zero, 1080, Advance Wars, Pokemon, NBA Court Side. Nintendo has so much they can do.

I''m with Ulari on this one. I think Nintendo really needs to make some big strides in the on-line department to secure it''s future here in the states. Even if it isn''t one of the main reasons a person would buy a cube, it''s still an attractive selling point.

Besides, how cool would Advanced Wars on-line be? One on one, FFA, or massive multiplayer.

Mario Kart online alone would sell more cubes.

Most of those games you list though Ulari don''t strike me as big online games. Sure having that available would be a nice option, but most of the games you listed, I wouldn''t buy because their online capable, but rather for the fun single player game.

I haven''t played Pikmin, so I don''t know about that one, but the others? I mean aside from Mario Kart and F-Zero, would those other really move systems for their online abilities?

Smash Bros online would be cool.... Mario Golf, Mario Tennis...

But we''re talking Nintendo here, they would innovate and do something no ones thought of yet, and it would be really cool.

EDIT: Basically what Ulairi said.. heh.

But we''re talking Nintendo here, they would innovate and do something no ones thought of yet...

You know, they can say screw innovation and just give me Zelda online with co-op and they would own me! Damn that would be fun.

To quote the latest DFC info letter:

Nintendo Still in the Game

2/25/03

Last week, DFC Intelligence published a 600-page report on leading companies in the game industry, Market Leaders in the Video Game and Interactive Entertainment Industry (see press release below). One of the many issues this report documents is how Nintendo lost ground over the years to Sony, and now, Microsoft. Therefore we thought it would be appropriate to look at where Nintendo currently stands. In coming issues we will look under the hood of other leading companies in the interactive entertainment industry.

Of course, with about $4.6 billion in revenue (FY 2002), Nintendo is the second largest company in the video game industry (Sony with $8.2 billion in FY 2002 has been the revenue leader since 1998). Furthermore, Nintendo is a conservative company, very focused on the bottom line. On top of that, no company comes close to Nintendo''s record of top-selling video games. As a result, Nintendo has been far and away the most profitable game company (yes, more than Sony''s game profits), and has built up a large cash reserve of around $7 billion. This gives Nintendo plenty of breathing room to make mistakes.

Going forward, Nintendo may need all the breathing room it can get. The company''s focus on short-term earnings have often come at the sacrifice of long-term strategic positioning. Whether it is aggressively building/maintaining relationships with smaller companies or keeping up with the evolution of the video game consumer, Nintendo has generally come up short. While competition has sprouted up all-around, Nintendo has kept its feet planted firmly in its roots. The company''s revenue actually peaked ten years ago (see chart).

Nintendo continues to release many of the best games on the market, but it says a lot that the biggest titles of the past year have been based on franchises established in the 1980s (Mario, Metroid, Zelda etc). The company was slow to awake to the fact that adults were playing games in large numbers. While Nintendo is now trying to focus on mature games, it is still unclear whether the company ""gets"" that end of the business. For example, with the GameCube, Nintendo placed a heavy focus on Resident Evil games (adult horror titles that were very popular on the PlayStation when released in 1996). Unfortunately, the hot trend in the adult market is currently gangster games like Grand Theft Auto III and The Getaway. Don''t even try to talk about Nintendo and online games.

Of course, the argument has always been that Nintendo can make a healthy living in the two large markets it dominates, portable games and games for the 8-14 year old crowd. However, Nintendo is only going to see increased competition in these areas. In terms of quality, major holiday 2002 PlayStation 2 releases like Kingdom Hearts, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoon and Ratchet and Clank were right up there with some of the great Nintendo platform games. Furthermore, the average 5 th grader now thinks that games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto III are ""cool,"" even if their parents won''t let them play.

In the portable market, Nintendo''s market share has nowhere to go but down. Of course, there will be new competition such as the Nokia N-Gage (scheduled to be released in late 2003). While we don''t think that the N-Gage is a specific threat to Nintendo''s market dominance, we do think it is a harbinger of the increased competition that will likely occur in the portable market over the next five years. The portable market will eventually be another major battleground for Nintendo.

In short, Nintendo is being attacked from all sides and the company may need to change some of its long running habits. Specifically, the company needs to be more focused on strategic planning for the future and not squeezing the most money out of their latest triple AAA title.

A question we are asked on a frequent basis is whether Nintendo is still even relevant in today''s market. Our answer is always a definite yes. Nintendo is a video game powerhouse, even as their market share continues to erode. One of the beauties of the console game business is that you can reinvent yourself every five years when new game systems are released.

Of course, many are questioning whether Nintendo will pull a Sega and leave the console race to Sony and Microsoft. For its part, Nintendo has stated that it plans to release a successor to the GameCube and we fully expect Nintendo to continue to be in the hardware business. Unlike Sega, Nintendo has the cash reserves to put up a major fight. Furthermore, Nintendo is one of the true industry innovators, on both the software and hardware side. For example, the WaveBird Wireless Controller was one of the stellar hardware products of 2002. Nintendo''s real challenge is being more willing to forego short-term profits to come up with a strategic long-term approach.

There are signs that Nintendo is slowly starting to change its ways. There is still plenty of potential for the GameCube to have strong sales. The slow economy probably hurt GameCube sales more than PlayStation 2 and Xbox sales. Nintendo is being very aggressive about cutting prices and offering compelling bundling packages to encourage sales. On top of that, Nintendo is once again starting to work closely with important Japanese game companies such as Namco, Square, and Capcom (as well as Sega). These companies helped build Nintendo back in the 1980s. However, as their relationship with Nintendo deteriorated, these companies fled to the Sony PlayStation. In short, Nintendo may now be an underdog, but underestimating the company is a major mistake.

Personally, I''ve been really tempted to pick up a cube due to 1) it''s rather cheap and 2) You can play F-zero, Metroid(s), Arcadia, and Zelda on it. I have never owned a nintendo product of any kind.... they must be doing something right. It''s the strong single player content that draws me, personally.

It''s the strong single player content that draws me, personally.

I agree with Gorey insofar as it''s strong single player content that draws me to any system or game in the first place multiplayer content is good but not always necessary for me.

However I own a PS2 and one of my co-workers has a ''Cube and an X-Box and for me I''d buy the Microsoft product first. now that''s saying something as I''ve always loved nintendo products since I was a kid. I just don''t knoew what it is about the cube that just leaves me cold, the only games I''ve really enjoyed were Mario Sunshine and Metroid.Even then part of me hankered for Mario 64.

Eternal Darkness and Metroid Prime really want me buy a gamecube. Especially the GC+MP bundle they are putting out when MP hits the stores here in Germany. The problem for me is the controller. I tried it for half an hour in the shop and afterwards my hands ached :(. Is there any bigger version of that controller?
Also I heard Metroid Prime has some strange controls? How much truth is in that? I know the controls completely ruined gunvalkyrie for me, so I think it is fair to say that I am a bit picky about controls in a game ;).

chrisq,

if you can, try it first. They are pretty funky at first, but I got used to them in a reasonable amount of time and enjoyed the hell out of the game. If I was given a choice I''d like a different option, but they certainly didn''t ruin the game for me.

Metroid Prime is good. The controls never posed much of a problem to me... Actually, I still don''t understand why people complain about the controls. They get you around, and they get you shootin'' stuff, and they do it better than Resident Evil ever could.

And right now you can get a Cube and a free copy of MP!

Hmm, controller wise, I''ve heard nothing but raves about the Wavebird. I''d stick ''awesome wireless controller'' on the list of ''reasons to splurge'', myself.
Eternal Darkness- forgot about that one. I think there''s a cube in my future...yessir.

The wavebird proves that all controllers should be wireless. Best thing ever.

This may not be anything, but it looks like the big N is investing in technology for next gen hand-helds.

http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG2...

It may not mean they''re staying in the console hardware market, but since they''ve got a stranglehold on handhelds it would be silly to pull out of hardware altogether.

"Kriegshund" wrote:

This may not be anything, but it looks like the big N is investing in technology for next gen hand-helds.

http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG2...

It may not mean they''re staying in the console hardware market, but since they''ve got a stranglehold on handhelds it would be silly to pull out of hardware altogether.

]

They are staying in the console hardware market.

"Kriegshund" wrote:

It may not mean they''re staying in the console hardware market,

ohmygodwhatthefklaughoutloud. sorry, couldnt help myself...