Nintendo not doing too hot

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Jungle Beating
Nintendo's Bongo-based platformer bombs hard as GCN performs poorly overall in March.
by Matt Casamassina
April 15, 2005 - March is undoubtedly a month that execs at Nintendo of America would like to forget. Although the publisher launched an innovative new platformer to complement such early-year releases as Resident Evil 4 and Star Fox Assault, its GameCube console was pummeled by efforts from the competition, according to data from software sales tracker NPD Group.


The first game from Nintendo's Tokyo studio, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, debuted in March to abysmal sales figures. The bongo-based platformer sold through a paltry 39,000 units for the month, well below expectations.
Both Resident Evil 4 and Star Fox Assault, debuting exclusively for GameCube in January and February respectively, outperformed Jungle Beat, although neither ranked among the month's Top 10 sellers. Resident Evil 4 sold through another 50,000 units, raising its total to almost 500,000 in North American sales since its release. Meanwhile, some 80,000 gamers picked up Star Fox Assault in March, pushing total sales of the game to more than 180,000 since its debut.

Mario Party 6, NBA Street V3, Robots, MVP Baseball 2005, Dragon Ball Z Sagas, The Incredibles and Super Smash Bros. Melee, none of which sold more than 48,000 units, rounded out the GameCube Top 10 for the month.

Overall GameCube hardware sales for the month were a reflection of software sales: down. Approximately 90,000 GameCubes were sold for the month.

The top-selling videogame in March was Gran Turismo 4 for PlayStation 2 with 500,000 units. MVP Baseball 2005 for PlayStation 2 sold nearly 340,000 units. Meanwhile, the anticipated action-adventure God of War topped 200,000 units sold. The top-selling Xbox game for the month was Star Wars Republic Commando with some 215,000 units sold.

Sony's new handheld device, the PlayStation Portable or PSP, was off to a strong start in March. Approximately 620,000 PSPs were sold during the week that the handheld was released, according to NPD data. An impressive figure for the comparatively expensive handheld, but not quite up to Sony's own expectations, it would seem; the publisher indicated early on that it was prepared to sell one million PSPs two days after it shipped.

Some 430,000 units of Nintendo DS have been sold in the US this year, according to NPD data.

Sony, meanwhile, sold almost 500,000 more PlayStation 2s in March. Microsoft sold about 230,000 more Xbox consoles.

If software sells hardware, Nintendo is sure to be in even bigger trouble in April. There are no new games coming out for GameCube in April.
Click to expand...
source: http://cube.ign.com/articles/604/604674p1.html

what do you all think?

†B†V† :hat
 
Nintendo needs more third party support. They can only go so far with Zelda and Mario. I hate exclusive deals now because as a gamer I want games done from a company for all platforms. I think they would make more money this way anyways.
 
only problem is tha it didn't sell well... so the picture they'll get is "good games don't sell well on the Gamecube."

BV :hat
 
True. But that still doesnt change their need for 3rd party support. Unless Nintendo busts out with some kind of system seller like Halo or GTA. Although I would think Zelda is enough.
 
im thinking the new zelda will give them a boost..


has anyone else noticed that true nintendo fans are like them against the world ... or the mcrsoft and sony fan people..?
 
I never really got into the GameCube, but I really wanted to play RE4, in fact, I downloaded the speed demo of it, just so I can watch how its played, but it sucks, cause he skips all the cut scenes =P
 
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was priced too high for the kind of game that it is.

With the bongos, it was $54.99 and without, $39.99. It's a great game but there was no way it could do well at those prices. It would have done a lot better if they had been $49.99 with bongos and $29.99 without. I'm sure that when it hits an eventual price drop, people will pick it up then. It's the most popular demo game at GameStop pretty much every time I'm in there.

And as for RE4...it's a shame that people seem to be waiting for the PS2 version. Half of the team working on the PS2 port quit, and that's after they had to drop the polycount by 1/4. It's not going to look nearly as good on the PS2 as it does on the Cube.

But I think it will get better. They recently started a jet black Gamecube bundle that comes with Pokemon Collosseum, and of course when Zelda comes out, that's going to be pretty huge.
 
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