Gamecube Officially Dead

Nintendo has offically announced that they will no longer be manufacturing Nintendo Gamecubes anymore, as of last weekend, that they will no longer be manufacturing Nintendo Gamecube consoles, so the stores will now be getting their last shipments of Gamecubes, for sale at retail value of $99.99 This is most likely done in response to their Nintendo Wii console dominating January's sales charts with an impressive 450,000+ units sold, while the Gamecube got the lowest sales of a mere 40,000- units sold.

The Nintendo Gamecube launched on November 17, 2001 on the night of a meteor shower (just like the Wii launch!). It was victim to the one-year headstart established by Sony's already successful PlayStation 2 (kinda like Xbox 360). Then, it quickly became a contender in the 128-bit console wars, with launch titles of Luigi's Mansion and Super Smash Brothers Melee. Then, after a long drought of 1st party games, the Gamecube quickly lost momentum and fell victim to Microsoft's first step into the gaming world with the Xbox, carrying titles such as Halo: Combat Evoloved and Halo 2 in its onslaught. In 2003, they did manage to pull off Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker which was welcomed with mixed feelings by the new style of playful cell-shaded graphics, and they also pulled out what was yet another sequal to Super Mario 64, entitled Super Mario Sunshine.
2004 was Nintendo's last true year of success with their cute little purple console. It had titles like Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure and the title widely proclaimed as the scariest and arguably greatest game of all-time, which was surprisingly released by a 3rd party company, it was Resident Evil 4!
2005 the Gamecube began to die down, as Nintendo began to focus its efforts in the Nintendo DS. 2005 began the longest drought of games that the system endured, especially for a console that had A LOT of droughts.
Finally, on December 12, 2006 the Gamecube went out with a bang, releasing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. However, it was overshadowed by the Wii's port of the game. Every other game that was planned for released by Nintendo was quickly, yet quietly ported over to the Wii. And now, the console has seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

But now that Nintendo is no longer producing Gamecubes they now have even more machines capable of building Wiis to satisfy the high demand. Nintendo's Gamecube finished last in the 128-bit console war, and Nintendo's president, Reggie-Anim-Fils says that the Gamecubes greatest flaw was the long drought of games (NO KIDDING!), and they say they will try to prevent this from happening with the Wii. So far Nintendo has been true to their word by releasing 1st party titles every month, weekly updates to the Wii Shop Channel, and having strengthening 3rd party support. But how long will they be able to keep it up? Is Nintendo putting out too many high-end titles for download all at once? Will the 3rd party give the Wii a chance? Being so early on in the HD Console Wars its hard to say, but we'll have to wait and see.


R.I.P.
Nintendo Gamecube
November 17, 2001 - February 23, 2007