Nintendo announces plans for next console

[Tommy Boomfiger]

Nintendo Planning Next Console
Quit the console race? Never. Nintendo wants to win it.

January 23, 2003 - It appears that Nintendo is finally learning its lessons. In a Reuters interview posted this morning, Nintendo of Japan president Satoru Iwata commented on the company's long-term intentions in the console wars to follow its current GameCube hardware.
"We are developing a new home video game console with a plan to release the new system around the same time as rival makers do," said Iwata. "The PlayStation 2 debuted one-and-a-half years ahead of the GameCube. If we had launched the GameCube at the same time as PlayStation 2, the result would have been different. ... We will get ready for a (new) battle in 2005 although foreign game developers are now saying that rival next-generation systems won't come until 2006."

Iwata emphasized Nintendo's plans to stick in the console industry by saying, "When we withdraw from the home game console, that's when we withdraw from the video game business."

Iwata also commented on Nintendo's current strategy: "Our focus for 2003 is to offer new types of games which allow consumers to play both on the GameCube and Game Boy Advance."

Nintendo's newfound focus on the future can perhaps be attributed to its most recent sales reports, which put it in close competition with Microsoft's Xbox for the number two spot in the industry behind Sony's mammoth PS2 market share. Nintendo missed projected sales of 10 million GameCube systems by 10%, as well as falling short of its projected 55 million units of software sales.

On a down note, when asked about these lacking sales, Mr. Iwata blamed the videogame market, saying, "Consumers today apparently don't want to sit in front of the television to play games for hours and hours." This comment leaves us completely baffled, as we're not entirely sure how the president of NCL hasn't noticed the millions of PS2 units shipped each month, in addition to the 1.5 million copies of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City that shipped from retailers during the month of December alone.

But no matter what the reason for the sliding Nintendo sales at the end of 2002 (and we're fairly confident that it's not a lack of consumer interest in videogaming), we're certainly thrilled to no end to see Nintendo taking an early and aggressive approach to its next console strategy.

Stay tuned to IGNcube for the latest breaking news on Nintendo's post-GameCube plans.

IGN (http://cube.ign.com/articles/383/383515p1.html)

[ProMinx]

Yup...we now have each of the big three releasing a new home console on or by 2K5. The race is on, and this time who knows which company will win? Sony won't have that one year benefit anymore, and I would assume that all three systems will be backward compatible for the most recent systems. Hopefully, this time around it will all be about system quality and game selection rather than first appearance and long-dead reputations...

ProMinx

[sbp]

http://www.gamers.com/news/1303598
It is, however, worth pointing out that PlayStation 2 (which, for the record, sold 8.5 million units over the holiday season alone -- up 24% from last year) is not GameCube's only competition. Although Nintendo is hanging onto the number two spot worldwide, this is entirely thanks to a strong second place share of Japan -- GameCube is running in third place behind Xbox in both the U.S. and now Europe. In fact, Xbox had its strongest sales ever in the U.S. this December, up 43% over the previous high-water mark when the console launched in November, 2001, and seeing an 80% increase in software sales -- the same period, need we point out, during which Nintendo admits to falling short. Indeed, Iwata's failure to make any mention of Xbox during the interview is curious, to say the least.

Our focus for 2003 is to offer new types of games which allow consumers to play both on the GameCube and Game Boy Advance," Iwata continued. This refers to the three new Pokemon titles Nintendo plans to release this year, which exploit the connectivity between the GBA and GameCube. Again, curious, given that the Pokemon craze is essentially dead in the territories Nintendo needs to bolster the most (the U.S. and Europe).

Takehiko Takachio, senior portfolio manager at Kokusai Asset Management was somewhat more blunt, quoted by Reuters as saying, "Nintendo's GameCube is way behind Sony's PlayStation and looks to lose out to the (Microsoft) Xbox as well, and with no new products in the pipeline, it's hard to see where the growth will come from." However, Takachio went on to conclude, "But Nintendo is still a company with great development capabilities, and I don't think the GameCube is going so bad that they will have to follow the road that Sega took in withdrawing from hardware."

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News at 11: Third place finish in the works for Nintendo.
*chuckle* One might say cutesy Gamecube gets outboxed by X-Box http://www.pcabusers.net/forums/images/icons/fight.gif
GameCube doesn't even play DVD's or CD's and no net access. :duh:

/smells slight whiff of Sega

Oh joy joy more Pokemon games is the answer. :heh:

Nice way to blame the videogamer. Guess folks have to buy whatever Nintendo shoves out no matter how lame. http://www.pcabusers.net/forums/images/icons/headshake.gif
No Mr. Iwata, gamers don't want to sit in front of the tv with rethread after rethread.

"If we had launched the GameCube at the same time as PlayStation 2, the result would have been different." Maybe or maybe not. Being first to market doesn't ensure coming out on top. Just ask Sega. Besides Nintendo would have had no software ready to go.

[Tommy Boomfiger]

Originally posted by sbp
"If we had launched the GameCube at the same time as PlayStation 2, the result would have been different." Maybe or maybe not. Being first to market doesn't ensure coming out on top. Just ask Sega. Besides Nintendo would have had no software ready to go. i think that if all three consoles had been released at the same time it would definately be different. nintendo has a very strong following because of a history of good fun games. sony also had a huge success with thier PS1 and had thier followers. had all three console been released at the same time at the same prices xbox would probably not have even made a dent. chances are that the technology that pushes the XBOX ahead of the PS2 would not have been implemented and all three consoles would have been much closer to each other technology wise. with GCNs $100 price advantage, we would probably be seeing a PS2 vs GCN race with XB practically out of the picture maybe until XB2. of course this is all speculation since there really is no way to know what would have happened and if GC would have been released at $200 or if XB would have had better hardware

[chrissy]

To comment on the sales of the Xbox during December... Parents and young adults alike bought it because it was packaged with either 2 or 3 games instead of maybe one or none. For the money, it was a great deal during that time of year.