GameCube - May 3rd, 249 Euros (£150 Stg)

Shinji

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CTW NewsFlash
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GameCube set for £150 May debut

Nintendo will launch its GameCube console at a price point of 249
Euros - approximately £150 - across Europe on May 3rd.

Nintendo plans to ship one million units of the system, which has
already sold circa 2.7 million units in the USA and Japan, for the
launch period in Europe. The launch will be supported by 20 software
titles on day one - the largest ever line up of software for a
platform launch, beating Microsoft's Xbox launch in March by two
titles.

Details of the launch are set to be revealed publicly by Nintendo
Europe managing director David Gosen in a pre-recorded web broadcast
at 9am GMT on Monday morning.

In his speech, Gosen claims that "GameCube will not be targeted at
kids, it will not be targeted at teens and it will not be targeting
adults; GameCube will appeal to anyone who enjoys being entertained by
interactive gaming."

Among the key points highlighted by Gosen in the speech is the
connectivity between GameCube and Game Boy Advance, which he describes
as a "true and unique Nintendo asset". "We have more than three
million Game Boy Advance owners across Europe who have taken the first
step towards GameCube ownership by buying Game Boy Advance", he
claims.

Among the launch titles on the platform will be first-party games
Luigi's Mansion and Wave Race Blue Storm, third party exclusive titles
Star Wars: Rogue Leader and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and a variety of
non-exclusive games including FIFA: Road To The World Cup, Tony Hawks
Pro Skater 3, Batman, Crazy Taxi and Burnout.

A full report will appear in the next issue of CTW.

chernobyl

Wow, i was expecting a £199/€300 price tag, this is certainly the most attractive/consumer friendly console ever.

Uphamizer

Most of the games on the GameCube are sh!te, they're aimed at children...
I'm going to put my money into an Xbox

Shinji

Most of the games on the GameCube are sh!te, they're aimed at children...

Thank you for your helpful, constructive and entirely uninformed contribution. Please call again!

Q_Ball

This is good news, i hope that ninty are finally waking up to the fact that europe is in fact a market and not just a substantial bonus for them. I was dreading the wait to september.

Hehe, now i don't have to fork out EUR 479 on the xbox Luigi's mansion and star wars are so close i'd better put on the rubber pants

chernobyl

Europe is the second biggest market and by the end of this year with the current growth continued through this year, will make us the biggest.

Jimi-Spandex

Horray!!!!!!!!

All i need now is to win the lotto and i'm sorted

Shinji

Oh, and a little bird tells me they're knocking 25% off the price of the GBA in the VERY near future as well.

Dont be at yourself

The fact that its yet than half the price of the X-Box more than negates the X-Box's headstart. I really can't see the X-Box making a big impact at €500, not with the PS2 hitting its stride and a super-cheap GameCube of comparable performance on the market.

Price cuts on the GBA? I already have one, I need a price cut on those obscenely priced games!

Shinji

That's also happening - Ninty dropped the cart manufacturing cost recently, I think we're about to start seeing new GBA releases at £29.99 Stg (currently £34.99).

chernobyl

Originally posted by NekkidBibleMan
I really can't see the X-Box making a big impact at €500,

You gonna play with the config screen of your Xbox only?
Remember you will want a game or 2 so the actual asking price for an Xbox is €600.
Only the hardcore will be there on launch day, or the financially blind.

Shred

Excellent news, I must say

But let's hope the big 'N' will put a bit more effort into Europe this time and not just write it off as they've done before...

Shinji

I think that the price and the ship-out figure kinda proves that they're going to put the effort into it...

In other news, I have an unconfirmed report that the PAL GameCube will have full native RGB support (no messing around like on the Jap or US systems!) and that by holding the B button at boot, you get a 60Hz native machine. It even remembers your preference for 60Hz in future.

Which is bloody nice really.

Bluehair

Originally posted by Shinji
In other news, I have an unconfirmed report that the PAL GameCube will have full native RGB support (no messing around like on the Jap or US systems!) and that by holding the B button at boot, you get a 60Hz native machine. It even remembers your preference for 60Hz in future.

Which is bloody nice really.

That's is great news, and enough to keep me from importing a US machine (as I was about to next week). It should definately put the wind up Xbox too. I mean I like the Xbox put not for that kind of money, if they drop the price for Xmas then probably but in the meantime I'm sure I'll be perfectly happy with my Gamecube with Monkey Ball, Luigis' Mansion, Wave Race, Pikmin, Rouge Leader etc. etc...

Originally posted by chernobyl


You gonna play with the config screen of your Xbox only?
Remember you will want a game or 2 so the actual asking price for an Xbox is €600.
Only the hardcore will be there on launch day, or the financially blind.

Thats absolutly insane. I cant believe theyre pricing it at 600Euros ( i dont have the sign on my comp ) . You could get 2.5 Gamecubes for that!! Thankfully im not planning on buying it.

Dont be at yourself

Don't forget the extra €30 for a remote that allows you to watch DVDs either

Coyote

hey shinji you have any idea what price the panasonic full size DVD ver will be over here ?

Shinji

There aren't any plans to release that over here yet

Dont be at yourself

lik-sang.com sell region free ones modded to play US and Japanese games though. Still, its a little pricey

tHE vAGGABOND

well we have a gamecube in the office here, and a bunch of games, and none of them seem any good to me - most of the good games are the same old cartoony/silly puzzles..

The Star Wars game looks very very good, but it feels like you are going very slowly, (like Ridge Racer 5 - popular bargin bin PS2 game!!) Some levels are very easy, and some are amazingly hard. Apart from the graphics update it plays 100% the same as ye olde X-Wing (1992'ish 386 Star Wars game FYI)

Luigi's mansion is just poo IMHO, no one in the office here likes it. Its selling like hot cakes, and prolly will here - but we'll see how many of them end up in the second hand bin in game

Ive never been a big fan of the Tony Hawks games - I dont have much intrest in doing skate board tricks..that said its very popular, so who am I to judge.

I think hardcare ninty fans will like it, but the casual gamer will own a PS2 or an XBox

DeadBankClerk

if you are buying one of the above systems please sell all your old dreamcast games to game or electronics boutique on grafton/dawson street and email me in advance


while you suckers have been buying ps2 games i have been cleaning up in the dreamcast department and buying any good game i see for the system. :P

chernobyl

Originally posted by tHE vAGGABOND
but the casual gamer will own a <edit>XBox

Im sorry but theres nothing casual about owning an Xbox, at the moment its the most elitist console ever released (Europe only).


Its kinda ironic [but more in the pi$$ me off sense], that in the most expensive country in the world..Japan, the Xbox is cheaper than anywhere else..i guess Bill expects Europe to pick up the tab...he will be suprised.

tHE vAGGABOND

its the most elitist console ever released

I’m not a huge XBox fan but that’s just waffle, either that or you don’t get the meaning of the words your using..

How much was the PS2 when it was released? How much was the original Playstation. Consoles normally come in at about that £300 region. Gamecube is cheap, that’s amazing and well done to them. Personally I think that’s because they know their games are crap, but that’s just me

Xbox has a huge amount of work to do in Asia, as PS2 has huge penetration, and a lot of people are die-hard Ninty fans. Add to that that it does not have a ‘killer app’ a mega game people will buy the console to play, let alone any amazing RPG type game so they need it to cheap or it wont sell the mega units they want down there..

Look at it over here, people over here will/may buy a console for Halo or *sniff* Champ Man etc, so they can take the risk and make it that bit more expensive as our taste in games is closer to the yanks and they have loads of games to suit us.

Shinji

I think we need to take into account that you work for Sports Interactive and hence your viewpoints on games are fundamentally flawed

chernobyl

Xbox is launching into the most compeditive console market ever, and the line of justification that you use and Xbox use "PS2 launched at that price too" is laughable, PS2 lauched with practically no compedition and you cant mark the DC as competition as most peeps at that stage just bough the box and played cd-r from then on.
the days of £300+ console are over, those days were for the hardcore, most of whom have now migrated over to the unbeatable PC.

If your happy picking up the tab for japan, then on you go, as for me i will wait, as halo isnt reason enough for me to spend €600 and the other euro titles are anything but inspiring.

tHE vAGGABOND

Shinji - your a fanboy who works for an ailing industry games mag - your hardly free of bias yourself

tHE vAGGABOND

you cant mark the DC as competition

Of course it was competition, it just did not sell that well against the marketing might of Sony - but it was deffo a threat as it had some great games. As for the comment that most people just used CD-r's. All I will say is that I disagree with you on that point. No one I knew with a DC used mostly cd-r's..

those days were for the hardcore, most of whom have now migrated over to the unbeatable PC

ROFL..So who are the people buying Xboxes and Gamecubes on import for 500-600 then, magic monkeys?

chernobyl

Originally posted by tHE vAGGABOND
ROFL..So who are the people buying Xboxes and Gamecubes on import for 500-600 then, magic monkeys?

You make it sound like their doing in their thousands, i only know one guy who imported an Xbox, but only did it so he could say "i did it", just like when he imported a saturn/jag/3do and on and on, but thats only one guy, and i know lots of peeps with pc's who could no longer give a toss about console gaming, most who give it up during the "isnt it cool to have a playstation" era.

Do you honestly think the Xbox will still be @ €479 when the Ninty Cube launch rolls around?

tHE vAGGABOND

Xbox launches in early March - the cubes short while later. Betcha MS wont drop the price that soon, esp as the story is that they are taking a hit per unit on the price as it is.

I think I read somewhere (correctly IMHO) that Microsofts biggest 'short term' goal is to have the XBox ready with available units, price and selection of games is for a huge worldwide push next christmas...

PS2 was out ages and they still had shortages all over the world in different places this christmas

makes sense to me anyway..

chernobyl

Xbox March 14th
GC May 6th.

I bet [a pack of mini snickers] that MS drop €79 of the Xbox before the GC launch.
I doubt Microsoft are taking a hit on the box here, infact i bet they are making a huge profit here, remember they have a factory in hungary so the normal charges the Ninty and Sony incurred dont apply to Microsoft.

Shinji

Do you honestly think the Xbox will still be @ €479 when the Ninty Cube launch rolls around

Absolutely. There's no way in hell MS will drop the price before May.


Your comment along the lines of hardcore gamers moving over to the PC is absolutely laughable, by the way. There have been more importers picking up GC and Xbox than any other console previously.

I do however feel that even the hardcore are liable to go for a GC at half the price, especially given that the initial software lineup of GC is more likely to appeal to them...

tHE vAGGABOND

yea, they are pe0ns as the man said

Pepe LeFrits

Dont be at yourself

Microsoft are going to have to cut the price by the end of the year though. They'll be fine for the first months, the hype surrounding the launch and the early-adaptors will ensure that it sells like crazy. But when the GC is on the shelves for half the price and that's stealing all the hype, X-Box sales are going to drop off. If they don't drop the price, GC sales will overtake X-Box sales before Christmas.

Q_Ball

Originally posted by DeadBankClerk
if you are buying one of the above systems please sell all your old dreamcast games to game or electronics boutique on grafton/dawson street and email me in advance

DBC, Game and EB will take back your DC games for the princely sum of between 2 and 4 Euro, just because they are not wanted anymore.

Sucks, dunnit.

Shinji

I doubt Microsoft are taking a hit on the box here, infact i bet they are making a huge profit here, remember they have a factory in hungary so the normal charges the Ninty and Sony incurred dont apply to Microsoft.

Heh, I somehow missed that gem when I posted the last thing.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. You're making silly assumptions based on no evidence. You could have found out you were wrong by doing a simple search on the web rather than postulating stupid theories on here. There's this huge resource called the Internet, you should think about using it sometime!

Microsoft THEMSELVES admit that they're losing $150 on each Xbox they sell. That's in pure hardware and doesn't count the cost of marketing, distribution, R&D and what have you.

They take a HUGE hit on the Xbox. And you're NOT about to see them discount it within the first few months, for the simple reason that if they did so, they'd be seen as running scared from GameCube.

Of course, they ARE running scared from the Cube. In the USA, the Cube is outselling XBox heavily at retail. But you can't let on to customers or shareholders that you're terrified of an opponents product. If they drop the price before GC launch, they'll probably actually sell less, because they look less confident in their own product.

tHE vAGGABOND

they have a factory in hungary

Think of it like this..

Sony and Ninity have been making consoles for ages, so every part of the chain is up and working and very well established..

Microsoft dont even make 'serious' hardware so have had to buy all the machines and/or establish all the parts to the chain

no matter what company you are, thats expensive business

chernobyl

Im sorry Shinji but even if Xbox is loosing $150 per box in america its 51% more expensive here, european gamers are taking a serious hit so that the box can be sold cheaper in american but mostly japan.

And vagga, you say that sony/ninty have factories pre built an good to go, no they dont, every time a new console has to be made, a factory(s) has to be selected or existing ones used but the production lines have to be redesigned and produced themselves.

I would be happy paying €479 but i know i am been asked to so just so the box can go for $299 in japan, that just itches me the wrong way.

Shinji

Absolutely, the European price is high to subsidise prices elsewhere. MS view Europe as a market already won. I think Ninty are going to give them a nasty shock.

They're still losing money on the European Xbox though, just a bit less money than elsewhere. Everyone except Nintendo loses money on hardware. It's ALWAYS been this way, and Microsoft isn't an exception - in fact, Microsoft is getting hit more-so than the others because of its insistence on using far more expensive components that aren't strictly necessary for a games console.

Shred

Look, the way I see it is this:

Nintendo have been around the longest out of all the exsisting console makers, therefore they have the most experience in the console market - so they should show it

They've made a good start with their pricing here, let's hope it's the start of them fighting to regain lost territory

Being a lover of all things Nintendo (although I would like an X-Box and PS2 as well:p ), I just hope they'll put it up to their competitors this time and not lie back..

(I got a pain in me t**s with all of their promises with the '64 - the disk drive for instance,which paved the way for Sony's dominance... )

It's gonna be a year to watch for console gaming, one were perhaps some of us will be eating double-helpings of humble pie:)

Right now though, I'm not in any rush to buy any of the consoles, I'm quite happy with my P.C.

chernobyl

Originally posted by Shred

It's gonna be a year to watch for console gaming.

Nah..its time to get dirty and dive right in..who cares about dubious ways to spend money, it does grow somewhere for free, like "the beach", you just gotta meet a weird suicidal scottish guy to [shout]get the map[/shout].

the_corpo

i don't know how i'm going to handle the wait....

handily enough it comes out the same day as my girlfriends birthday.

wonder what she'll be getting....

Dont be at yourself

Also my little sister's birthday. You stay away from her.

Q_Ball

Originally posted by the_corpo
i don't know how i'm going to handle the wait....

handily enough it comes out the same day as my girlfriends birthday.

wonder what she'll be getting....

ROFL, you could write your name on it too and tell her that it'll make her think of you everytime she plays it.

Nintendo have always been on top...fair enough, the Nintendo 64 (which i eagerly awaited) didn't do as well as Nintendo had hoped, but remember they still are the kings of handheld systems (the GameBoy is the most successful games console ever! ) and through their handheld dominance, they will regain their other console strength.

The way the GameBoy Advance interfaces with the GameCube can only be indicative of the care that Nintendo are putting into the product. By this action, GameBoy Advance sales will go up, as people will feel they're missing out on some things.

Sony and Microsoft, frankly, won't do as well as they're making out.

the PS2 is one of the most awkward consoles on the current market to program for (and that's a MAJOR issue) and the XBox...well, given Microsoft's programming abilites, that shouldn't be a problem, although one would question if their games can stand up to the "real" console games, not just cut down versions of their PC games. The price tag also shows inexperience of the market, as people won't go for that (unless they've more money than sense).

It's going to be interesting...as a former hardcore Nintendo fan, I hope they do well this time around.

Originally posted by MoonHawk
Nintendo have always been on top...fair enough, the Nintendo 64 (which i eagerly awaited) didn't do as well as Nintendo had hoped, but remember they still are the kings of handheld systems (the GameBoy is the most successful games console ever! ) and through their handheld dominance, they will regain their other console strength.

The way the GameBoy Advance interfaces with the GameCube can only be indicative of the care that Nintendo are putting into the product. By this action, GameBoy Advance sales will go up, as people will feel they're missing out on some things.

Sony and Microsoft, frankly, won't do as well as they're making out.

the PS2 is one of the most awkward consoles on the current market to program for (and that's a MAJOR issue) and the XBox...well, given Microsoft's programming abilites, that shouldn't be a problem, although one would question if their games can stand up to the "real" console games, not just cut down versions of their PC games. The price tag also shows inexperience of the market, as people won't go for that (unless they've more money than sense).

It's going to be interesting...as a former hardcore Nintendo fan, I hope they do well this time around.

I.e: Moonhawk = Nintendo Sales rep

seriously tho im looking forward to the GC aswell, but the PS2 is still loads fun which is what counts. Also i cant wait for Final Fantasy 10. Incidently release dates ne1?

Shinji

July, IIRC.

but the PS2 is still loads fun which is what counts. Also i cant wait for Final Fantasy 10.

Of course, that is what counts at the end of the day, but my point was that developers have a hard time already without awkward programming techniques in order to use the PS2...when other consoles (eg. GameCube) come out, with far easier programming access, then developers could suddenly realise that they can do more with less effort for the Nintendo machine.

I.e: Moonhawk = Nintendo Sales rep

That would be cool!

Mills

I'll quite possibly pick up one of the next gen consoles in june when I finish the leaving cert, at the minute it's looking likely to be a PS2 or maybe a Gamecube, I'd have said X-Box until I saw that price, no chance, unless it turns out to be head and shoulders above the rest.

I'd like a PS2 for Final Fantasy X and GTA3 mainly, I'll probably just rent MGS2 and play it through. At the minute I haven't seen any titles for the X-Box or Gamecube that make me really want one, and the PS2's DVD capability will come in handy.

Pugsley

Well, if you look at the X-Box thread,you will see that shinji didnt think any of the realease title were anything to write home about,but some of the later titles were brilliant,it might be worth getting after a few months (and i would trust shinji's opinion more than any games reviewer )
I wojnt be gettin the X-Box myself until its price drops....considerably.But if it isnt shaping up to its expectations of most,i might just give it a pass.
I'm gonan bok my GC the 1st day EB allow you to,because at £150 its the cheapest of the newer consoles,and ninty have never let me down before.
Perfect Dark 2 will be very interesting aswell,because the 1st was a classic,best FPS on any console,2nd best ever (damn HL is far too good ) IMO.

Perfect dark was fun but i wouldnt say it was "the best fps ever" cause there was just too much slowdown and what not. Multiplayer was l337. I forgot about perfect dark 2 for the GC. That and Zelda have sealed it for me