The Shrine

Very very long mind you, 29k words. Emily Rodgers is becoming one of my favorite journalists.

http://www.dromble.com/2014/01/07/dolph ... -gamecube/

Some gems:

The company discovered that many gamers became personally attached to their consoles. They would take their consoles over to a friend’s house to play, or they would move their console from one room to another. Nintendo decided to include a handle on the GameCube to give it portability and a more personal, friendly look.

“Before I started thinking about the design of the Nintendo GameCube, I did some research to determine how video game systems were used in game players’ homes. I discovered that a lot of players actually moved the console away from the television and closer to themselves while playing games. Adding the handle to the system makes it easier for players to do this, and it also gives the system a friendly look,” said Kenichiro.

“The Internet games available today are for hard-core gamers. I don’t believe the general public is going to be very interested in them,” said Hiroshi Yamauchi. “And I doubt that Net games will turn out to be profitable. There is only interest in these games because NTT DoCoMo Inc has profited from i-mode. I am not sure if content providers have made any money. Unless the business proves profitable, Nintendo will not be involved in Internet games.”

"…when we launched the GameCube, we put the concentration of our development kits in the hands of only a few people — internally, of course, with Mr. Miyamoto’s EAD team, but also with Rare. And Rare didn’t deliver a single game for us at the launch, when their history had been to make some really great games for us in the past. That hurt us, and it led us into this gap of titles, starting after the launch and lasting for about seven or nine months until Mario Sunshine came out.

Consumers want consistency. They would never buy a DVD player that had only one or two good movies a year; they want consistency and variety, and we’re trying hard to make sure that’s not only resolved for the GameCube, but as we go into the next system,”

Miyamoto spoke on the challenges of Nintendo 64 development and the transition from 2D to 3D game development. He believed that the struggles some third parties faced during the N64 era were necessary because it forced weaker developers out of the industry and made the remaining developers much stronger.

“It was hard to develop for the Nintendo 64, especially because the software libraries were delayed. However, the Nintendo 64 truly brought developers into the era of 3D, and there were bound to be problems with that,” says Miyamoto. ”I suppose developers who have been working with pseudo-3D on the PlayStation, are now finding themselves playing catch-up working in real 3D on the PlayStation 2. In that sense, I think the PlayStation 2 is even harder to develop for than the Nintendo 64. Nintendo 64 weeded out weaker developers at an early stage. In the long term, I think that was necessary. Almost a rite of passage.”

"In early 2001, Nintendo’s marketing chief Peter Main sent out a letter to ten major retail stores asking why Xbox was being promoted so early. The letter told retailers that manufacturers, publishers, and retailers rarely promote new products beyond the maximum 4-8 weeks before launch. Main blamed 2000′s 5-6% decline in sales on retailers promoting the PlayStation 2 instead of promoting current products already on store shelves. A Microsoft spokesperson laughed off Nintendo’s letter to retailers and said, “We’re flattered that Nintendo is taking the Xbox seriously, but it’s a bit odd to see them trying to take control of the information that gamers are getting at retailers.”

While the point on 3D may have been true; Nintendo made the stupid decision during the N64 era to cut loose DMA as a second party; went on to develop the defining franchise of the generation on the PS2 consisting of Grand Theft Auto3, Vice City, and San Andreas; and from Body Harvest and Space Station Silicon Valley, THEY KNEW how to develop 3D games.

Marketing for the Gamecube was an absolute mess, it came off too much like a PS2 for children rather than a unique Nintendo console. Nintendo's consoles have always pushed some sort of boundary; with the NES it was the simple and easy to use d-pad and 2 button interface; SNES improved that by throwing in shoulder buttons and the diamond face buttons; N64 added 3D and an analog stick for 3D movement; and Wii added in motion controls and a really streamlined interface for selecting software. What did Gamecube do?

All in all, as a huge Nintendo fan, the Gamecube era was really a disappointing time to be a Nintendo fan; it felt like every game either didn't really play as well as the last generation, or was not a very big step over the last generation; I suppose Metroid and Smash Brothers were a success, but that was about it - and I didn't really like either of them all that much. I honestly played the N64 Smash Brothers WAY more; I must have put 100-150 hours into the multiplayer of that one; and while Melee was a great game, I was all Smashed out by that point.

Unlike the Wii U, there were no virtual console or indie games being released all the time to tide me over on the Gamecube. The highlights of the era for me were Skies of Arcadia Legends, Resident Evil: Rebirth, and The Legend of Zelda collection. Overall though, it was a good generation for getting into handheld gaming, and a great excuse for replaying RPGs on older consoles. I know a lot of Nintendo fans try to shine some light on this generation as some sort of hidden golden age for Nintendo, but it really wasn't; it was the darkest of the dark age that began in the N64 era and ending somewhere between the DS and Wii.

Wii U kind of reminds me of Gamecube in the respect that it just doesn't feel like there's a lot of compelling software being released for it. Mario 3D World is the best one so far, but it really just a mix of Mario 3D Land, Mario Galaxy, and the multiplayer spice of the NSMB Wii series - and doesn't feel as progressive or fantastic as Mario Galaxy 1 or 2 on Wii; and Nintendo fans aren't stupid, we knew ahead of time just what that game was going to be - seriously, it's actually a great game, but it's not Mario Galaxy 3, which is what should have come out. So far my biggest Wii U highlight is Earthbound on VC.

Where Wii U doesn't remind me of Gamecube is that I think there's a lot more potential here with the interface, I am hoping that the Gears in X take advantage of having some interesting touchscreen controls. There was a bad game on 3DS early on called Steel Diver, that had touchscreen controls for a Submarine, and I think there is a lot of potential in that for a Mecha game. Of course, the complex interface might be a bit too intrusive for an RPG, so maybe another mecha-based game would be better suited. But now I'm rambling off topic, so I am going to end it here

I will read that article, because I kind of thought of Gamecube as a bit of a stop-gap between N64 and Wii; at least I thought that once the Wii had been revealed. I remember Sega saying that Nintendo had a really great idea for a controller in the works for Gamecube, and that they might be the ones to watch out for. We talked about it here... Of course, nothing like the controller described appeared until the Wii came out.