Why GameCube failed: Nintendo’s own four levels

A GameCube-specific disc has a capacity of only 1.47GB, while the double-layer DVD used by the PlayStation 2 at the same time has 8.5GB. This numerical gap determines the fate of the GameCube console.

The cumulative sales of Nintendo GameCube are 21.74 million units, which is the second worst performance in Nintendo's history, beating only Wii U (and Virtual Boy, which can technically be counted). It has a carrying handle and bright colors. It was one of the last home consoles to support four-player local connection. Super Smash Bros. Melee and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! all relied on this to support parties in the living room. But these advantages failed to outweigh several key wrong decisions in the end.

Disc format: save licensing fees, sacrifice image quality and lineup

Nintendo chooses its own GameCube Optical Disc format, while Sega's Dreamcast uses GD-ROM. Both are intended to avoid the licensing fees of the DVD Forum and DVD FLLC and prevent piracy. The price is that the storage space is compressed to between 1.2GB and 1.47GB, which is much less than the DVD used by PS2 and Xbox. As a result, cutscenes were forced to be compressed, the picture was blurry, and the sound quality was compromised; additional levels in works such as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Resident Evil 4 ended up only appearing on the Xbox and PlayStation versions. GameCube and Dreamcast also missed out on an additional revenue opportunity - the possibility of a built-in DVD player.

A more direct consequence is the wait-and-see attitude of third-party manufacturers. GameCube has accumulated about 600 third-party games in its career, but Rockstar Games, EA Sports, and Square Enix all chose to skip this format in the early days. Eidos Interactive also left with the Tomb Raider and Deus Ex series. The most serious blow came from Rare Ltd. - the British studio that had been cooperating with Nintendo for many years switched to the Xbox camp. Perfect Dark, Conker, Banjo-Kazooie sequels and the Killer Instinct series all changed hands.

As a result, GameCube did not have a trump card when it was launched, and could only rely on Super Monkey Ball, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader and Luigi's Mansion to support the scene. Luigi's Mansion is now a cult classic, but back then "Luigi without Mario" was almost guaranteed to be a slow seller in the market.

Online service was also slow. The Dreamcast was the first home console to seriously experiment with connectivity, and PlayStation Online and Xbox Live were at least already on the road. If GameCube players want to connect online, they have to connect their own router to play Phantasy Star Online, or use a local network connection to play Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. The real Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection did not appear until 2005. According to GameSpot, then-Nintendo president Satoru Iwata once told Japan Spotlight, a publication of the Japan Economic Foundation, that consumers were unwilling to pay more for online games or Internet services. This statement was not entirely wrong in the early days of the Internet's popularity, but it also made GameCube absent from the entire online ecosystem in the critical few years.

The design of the controller is equally bipolar. The overly large A button, the wrap-around arrangement of B, X, and Y buttons, the single shoulder button, and the absence of the second analog joystick have caused many players to complain on the forum that the operation is awkward, but it is unexpectedly in tune with works such as Super Smash Bros.

Nowadays, this unsaleable console has become a hot commodity in the second-hand market - the original optical discs can cost anywhere from US$5 to US$1,500 depending on the condition. A complete GameCube is harder to find than a popular new game.