During the recent Spaceworld 2000 event in Japan, NCL unveiled its next-generation console. What was known as Project: Dolphin for over a year was now referred to as Nintendo Gamecube. The Gamecube name is very good in that it explains exactly what it does and what it is—a game playing device shaped as a cube. While Sony and Microsoft strive to broaden the functionality of their respective consoles to cover everything from games, movies, and music to websurfing and online shopping, Nintendo is going in the opposite direction by focusing on one area it excels at—game play.
Since Sony's and Microsoft's machines can do all those things, they're bound to appeal to a broader audience, which in turn means more consoles will be sold than if those features weren't present. Sony launched its PlayStation2 earlier this year in Japan and five months later it had shipped three million units. While those figures are indeed impressive, one has to keep in mind that the majority of those units were used primarily as DVD movie players. For every PlayStation2 unit, only two games were sold. Compare that to the 1:5 ratio for Sony's original 32-bit console in 1995, and it's clear that while the hardware is selling, the games can't quite catch up.
Still, Sony's strategy is completely understandable. While the PlayStation was one of its largest income sources, it was not the only one. The Sony brand covers so much more than just video games and it's logical for the company to make a product that appeals to its broad market. As an example, Sony sells movies and music—it even owns film and music studios. Nintendo does not; it has nothing to gain from making a machine that can play movies and music. Sure, it would probably sell more units, but we all know by now that Nintendo makes its money from the games—not the hardware.
Back in the 1980s, NCL's president Hiroshi Yamauchi wanted to make an entertainment center. While he sold the Famicom (the NES in Japan) as a game machine, it would soon be apparent that it could be used as a personal computer as well. With peripherals such as a keyboard and a modem, the console could connect to the phone lines, enabling it to be used as a terminal for reading the news, making reservations, checking the stock market, and participating in lotteries. Unfortunatelly for Yamauchi, his plan didn't work as well as he had hoped for, and even though the peripherals sold well, they didn't sell enough to be considered a success. Even with that in mind, the NCL president didn't want to give up. In 1998, the Nintendo 64 add-on 64DD was finally launched in Japan. Once again, it didn't go as planned.
Two years later, it seemed NCL had finally learned its lesson when it announced that the Gamecube would focus on gaming instead of trying to be a set-top box like the PlayStation2 and Microsoft's Xbox. Think of Nintendo as a specialist—it focuses on what it knows best. Instead of trying to sell something it isn't familiar with—like it did with the Famicom and Nintendo 64 add-ons—Nintendo sticks with its traditional business. The Kyoto giant has a proven record of producing some of the best games in the interactive entertainment industry and will certainly not stop doing that any time soon.
Even though the Gamecube will only play video games, there is still light at the end of the tunnel for the Nintendo fans who want to have an all-in-one device that not only plays the best games around, but also plays the latest DVD movies and music CDs. One of Nintendo's many hardware partners, Matsushita, will make a Gamecube-compatible DVD player that will play movies, music, and—most importantly—Nintendo Gamecube games. This machine, codenamed the X21, will supposedly launch at the same time as Nintendo's Gamecube in Japan. Whether it will be sold outside of Japan or not is still unknown at this point, but if it's a success in its home country, Matsushita will most likely launch it here as well.
Allowing Matsushita to incorporate the Gamecube technology into its future DVD products is one of the smartest moves Nintendo has made in a long time. While Nintendo concentrates on what it has done for more than fifteen years, it has let one of the world's largest electronic giants take on the competition. If Matsushita sells a lot of X21 units, the number of Gamecube games sold would ultimately increase. However, if the set-top boxes turn out to be a failure, Nintendo would not be affected at all. Whether the other companies succeed or not, Nintendo has nothing to lose and everything to win, because there will always be a demand for a true game machine. With the competitors going in another direction, it seems Nintendo will be the only company willing to provide us with just that.
Since Sony's and Microsoft's machines can do all those things, they're bound to appeal to a broader audience, which in turn means more consoles will be sold than if those features weren't present. Sony launched its PlayStation2 earlier this year in Japan and five months later it had shipped three million units. While those figures are indeed impressive, one has to keep in mind that the majority of those units were used primarily as DVD movie players. For every PlayStation2 unit, only two games were sold. Compare that to the 1:5 ratio for Sony's original 32-bit console in 1995, and it's clear that while the hardware is selling, the games can't quite catch up.
Back in the 1980s, NCL's president Hiroshi Yamauchi wanted to make an entertainment center. While he sold the Famicom (the NES in Japan) as a game machine, it would soon be apparent that it could be used as a personal computer as well. With peripherals such as a keyboard and a modem, the console could connect to the phone lines, enabling it to be used as a terminal for reading the news, making reservations, checking the stock market, and participating in lotteries. Unfortunatelly for Yamauchi, his plan didn't work as well as he had hoped for, and even though the peripherals sold well, they didn't sell enough to be considered a success. Even with that in mind, the NCL president didn't want to give up. In 1998, the Nintendo 64 add-on 64DD was finally launched in Japan. Once again, it didn't go as planned.
Even though the Gamecube will only play video games, there is still light at the end of the tunnel for the Nintendo fans who want to have an all-in-one device that not only plays the best games around, but also plays the latest DVD movies and music CDs. One of Nintendo's many hardware partners, Matsushita, will make a Gamecube-compatible DVD player that will play movies, music, and—most importantly—Nintendo Gamecube games. This machine, codenamed the X21, will supposedly launch at the same time as Nintendo's Gamecube in Japan. Whether it will be sold outside of Japan or not is still unknown at this point, but if it's a success in its home country, Matsushita will most likely launch it here as well.