GameCube gets vasectomy; no longer reproducing

by Blake Snow { Feb 22nd 2007 at 12:57PM }

Nintendo's rising star Perrin Kaplan confirmed in an interview yesterday with GameDaily that the company is no longer making GameCubes, and they will not release any further games for it. "Are we producing any more GameCubes? No. But do we have the inventory there for people to still purchase? Yes," responded Kaplan. She went on to liken the Cube as a "great starter system" with "plenty" of games for those still interested in its library of discount thrills. But once the last GCN has shipped, fret not. Every GameCube game is "Wii Compatible."

And let the above image serve as a final reminder to console manufacturers everywhere -- no, strike that -- to electronics manufacturers everywhere to never release purple hardware. We love ya, Cubie. But you always did look much better in your black or silver jumpsuit.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Baby21 @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:00PM

NOOOO! PAPER MARIO?

BPM @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:01PM

Just wanted to note that the picture is of an unreleased model of GameCube. You can tell by how the disc is visable from the lid. :P

Myke @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:02PM

NA AHH< THEY stiLl aRE maKING IT, I'TS calledDD THE wII NOW!11!!111!!

(sorry, had to say it before one of the 6th graders did)

I'll bury my GCN tonight in my backyard. It's wierd, in the instruction manual it actually says that the Gamecube requests a Satanic Funeral? Oh well, gotta respect it's wishes...

JodyAnthony @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:04PM

I have been looking EVERYWHERE for a purple cube since mine was stolen, all I can find used are black, and all I can find in store are 'limited edition platinum'

Nowhere has purple. I needs ya, indigo!

Kobold Cultist @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:05PM

Hey... I liked the purple. Does that make me gay?

Crono @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:07PM

Yes.

Kevout @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:10PM

:(((((

BPM @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:18PM

Myke wins an Internet.

Sonicandtails @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:19PM

Didn't they remove the see through lid because the discs spin backwards and they wanted it to be less obvious for pirates?

vidGuy @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:21PM

We already know that Super Paper Mario is a Wii-only release. LoZ:TP might as well have been Wii-only. I'm not surprised they want to put all of the efforts into the Wii. The Wii is profitable and popular now.

x876543 @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:23PM

I have a Wii and a Launch day purple GC. Perhaps I should sell it on ebay for "big bucks"?

john @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:28PM

I've got purple one. Got it soon after launch. It's in a box behind the sofa, having been replaced by a Wii.

UpIrons @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:31PM

I could be wrong on this but isn't the Wii the first Nintendo console ever to be backwards compatible?

Myke @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:34PM

Console, yes. System, no (gameboy/pocket/color/advanced/DS/Micro)

Geo @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:35PM

@13.

Not really. SNES was able to do game boy games. DS does gba games, right?

Thess are the only two disc based formats, making it physically easier.

Rubang B @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:37PM

The Micro isn't backwards compatible.

PS3Crashed @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:37PM

@13

Console - YES
Handheld - NO
N64 being Cart based - MISTAKE (I'll be the first to admit...or maybe not lol)

Freezair @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:42PM

I don't think purple hardware is so bad. It's only slightly annoying when you have no other colors available. There never was a blue 'Cube, was there? Sigh... Ah well. I still loves me little indigo lunch box.

Myke @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:43PM

Rubang, really? I always thought it was, it can't do anything but GBA games? Wow, no wonder I don't want one...

BPM @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:45PM

Sonicandtails, that's just a myth (like Sonic and Tails in SSBM. :P). If you open a GCN as soon as a disc starts to spin, you can easily see it spins the same way as any disc drive.
GCN and Wii discs are normal DVDs, but the way they're encrypted makes it harder for PC DVD drives to read them (harder, but not impossible).

REUYL @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:45PM

"Nintendo's rising star Perrin Kaplan..."

I stopped reading right there.

FrankTheCrank @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:48PM

'sniff
'sniff
:-(

We hardly knew ya...

BPM @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:49PM

PS3Crashed, in some ways, sticking with the Game Pak format was a mistake, and in some ways, it was a good idea.

PRO:
-More durable
-No loading times
-Harder to pirate (well, that's good for devs/publishers, anyways :P)

CON:
-Costlier than CDs
-Much smaller storage space (compare N64's 64MB per game to PlayStation's 700MB per disc)

It's hard to say, but I think at the time, it was wise for Nintendo to stick with a Game Pak format, since CD drives were still pretty slow at the time.

Mini-DVDs for GameCube, though, were just silly.

Psaakyrn @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:51PM

to #20 BPM

You do know that the discs come in different sizes too?

32_Footsteps @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:51PM

You know, if I wasn't already preparing for a column I've been waiting to write for over a year which will run next Thursday, I'd jump at the chance to do a final send-off for the GC.

Ah well. I'll just play a few rounds of Gotcha Force for memories.

32_Footsteps @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:53PM

PS3Crashed @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:57PM

@ BPM

We can blame that wacky Shigeru for acting all Steve Jobsish with those Disks.

"You can fit them in your Zippo pocket"

Kengro @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:19PM

Well... This will say that my time with Nintendo are over, i'm not gonna get the wii nomatter what

samik @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:22PM

"isn't the Wii the first Nintendo console ever to be backwards compatible"
I know this is going to draw a lot of flak but have to add: Its the first console thats the same as the previous console, simply overclocked and with a new remote. The reason consoles are NOT prefectly compatible with previous generations is because the jump in chips/ processors is huge (for instance PS3/360/PS2/Gamecube about 10X or more in processor speed or RAM), but thats not the case with Wii, it has 3X processor speed and about 4X RAM, which is low for a 5-year period.

Ebolaboi @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:23PM

The Gamecube, what a waste of money, and a birthday present. Ugh I played my Saturn and Dreamcast more. I used it to hide money in the drive bay, that's all it was good for. I'm sure thieves would go for my PS3, or 360 first.

Neal Eaton @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:35PM

I for one like the Indigo color...when you see it up close, it has a really nice 'pearl' effect to its paint. I have said it before, and I will keep saying it...the 'Cube looked like what it was for...fun. If you check it out with the top facing you (standing on the controller ports), it looked like it was winking at you, and had its tounge sticking out just a little. I got one as a Super Mario Sunshine bundle, and it was a GREAT little machine.

I got rid of it after I got my Wii (before x-mas) while GameStop was giving an extra $25 in trade-in value for it...so I got almost $60 for it...not too bad for a 5 year old console.

mrfong @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:40PM

purple is by far the best color :)

greg @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:45PM

I wouldn't call the Wii truly backwards compatible. Can you really call it "backwards compatibility" when we have to hold on to all of our old controllers and memory cards? Allowing us to use the classic controller with Gamecube games and transfer saves onto the Wii's internal memory should only be a system update away, but until I can ditch all of my old hardware, I'd take any of Nintendo's bragging about Gamecube compatibility with a grain of salt.

Lou D @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:50PM

LOL, Gamecube has outsold the Xbox worldwide but the fanboys will say "we hardly knew ya"... In the US alone, the numbers are 13M for GC and 15M for Xbox. The GC also has more 1M+ selling titles...

...anyway...

The GC production line needs to revamp to make more Wii's and DS's. Now we can finally have those new colors...

Virtua Fanboy @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:52PM

Never again...NEVER again. (Looks down and shakes head in a relieving sadness that the age of purple consoles and cartoon links for Nintendo is finally, finally over.) LOL

FrankTheCrank @ Feb 22nd 2007 3:02PM

N64 vs. Gamecube

Seriously, which one was worst?

Both seemed to fizzle shortly after release. The NES and SNES were so much bigger than both those consoles. I would rather play PAC-MAN than have to relive any N64 game. GC was definitely better, but both systems had ugly controllers.

Myke @ Feb 22nd 2007 3:09PM

I'd say the N64 was a very important console in the scheme of things. Alot of it's games helped shape the way games are today. Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, All the Mario Sports games (I know alot of people don't like how Ninty milked every sport dry, but they're still highly-regarded games none-the-less), etc. The Cube on the other hand had some great titles but nothing that was industry-changing IMO.

Mr Khan @ Feb 22nd 2007 3:28PM

Rest In Peace

(for me) Christmas 2001 to November 19, 2006

Even though i still have it since i figured trade-in values for GC would plummet after Wii was launched, since it can do everything (significant) that GC could do

I'll wait for a decade or so, and sell it when it hits that "retro in demand" phase that the Saturn seems to have just gone through on EBay

Its in a box, languishing away the days

Crono @ Feb 22nd 2007 3:37PM

The N64 was a rousing success at one thing, and one thing alone:

It made nintendo the software developer it is today.

Think back. How many Nintendo 1st party titles can you name for SNES. All the ones I can think of came out VERY early in its development, and then its a small number, and they weren't the best titles on the system either.

Go to N64, when 3rd party support dried up, and Nintendo had to carry the system nearly singlehandedly. Go to cube, and Nintendo 1st party titles are not only considered the best on the platform, but Nintendo software is considered as some of the best in the world: critically acclaimed by all.

Mr Khan @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:15PM

@ Crono

You don't want me to list all the first party SNES titles

A crash of joystiq's servers, just to hold that much information...

It would be like if asked me: "list games for the PSX"

Keith @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:24PM

Arn't they virtually identical anyway, aside from a controller gimmick thing?

Patrick @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:24PM

gamecube, what can i say, you werent that great but you were my only console so you did ok, Halo called to me but alas pockets empty kept me from going multiplatform. Wii ftw got rid of mine last june, $50 towards my ds lite wasnt so bad. by the way black>purple

Crono @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:57PM

Mr. Khan,

Your missing the point. I didn't ask you to figure out how many first party games Nintendo made for SNES, I asked you which ones you remember. The quality of software nintendo makes has gone sky high since then, and the reason is because they had to carry the N64 practically solo.

N64 made Nintendo the software developer it is today. Thats all I was saying.

Hirsbrunner @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:48PM

Sounds like Kaplan's been taking interview lessons from Reggie.

Should I answer a question w/a question? Yes.
Should I then answer my own question? Absolutely.

Training complete.

steve17 @ Feb 22nd 2007 8:27PM

lol. i thought they stopped makin cubes years ago. considering no one buys them.

GhaleonQ @ Feb 23rd 2007 3:09AM

Purple is a great color.

Burnt Meatloaf @ Feb 23rd 2007 7:29AM

@samik: No. Most consoles maintain backwards compatibility by embedding an actual previous architecture into the new machine. The PS2, for example, had a genuine Playstaion CPU and graphics processor built into the PS2's I/O controller.

The compatibility problems arrise because of core syntesis issues. When you resynthesize a core for a new manufacturing process, undocumented features don't work properly on the new chips. Compatibility issues are almost always the fault of the developers, because they use the processor in ways that violate the manufacturer's programming guidelines. "Genuine" compatibility issues rarely exist in hardware (software, on the other hand...)

The Wii is backwards compatible because the low-level programming interfaces are the same as GameCube (at the expense of allowing for newer, more efficient processing). The speed of the system is irrelevant so long as all the coproccesors are synced properly.

*Greg: "I wouldn't call the Wii truly backwards compatible. Can you really call it "backwards compatibility" when we have to hold on to all of our old controllers and memory cards?"

Techically, no. A system is backwards compatible when it can run software from its original medium (no readers, converters, or re-licensing is required), and the system does not demand additional hardware. The Wii does not qualify. Just try to sell your GameCube without a controller so you can get more Wii games -- it's worthless.

*Crono: "Go to N64, when 3rd party support dried up, and Nintendo had to carry the system nearly singlehandedly."

They did that to themselves. Asside from the obvious "anti-piracy" issue, which offshored the cost of manufacturing to the software developers, 1st party developers were allowed to use custom microcode to make their games look better, while 3rd party developers could only use the "stripped" toolkits. Nintendo didn't share a lot of technical information with developers, probably because of SGI. That's part of the reason why 3rd party games weren't that good on the N64. The N64 was also a real pain to program, as SGI's architecture was actually not very good. Yes, visual quality was good, but it was damned ineffecient at the low level, and only the custom microcode could fix that.

t_m @ Feb 23rd 2007 9:40AM

I always thought the purple one looked pretty cool.. it definately looked a lot better than the boring black one. (and all colours looked a lot better than the xbox)

I guess you could argure for the PS2's design, but i'd say the combination of form factor and purple + orange light made the GC easily the best looking of the generation. (but they should definately have had a black version available from the start for the anticipated US gamer conservative attitudes.)

in a weird twist, I just got back from the store where I spent 20 minutes trying to decide if i should buy a gamecube. I wanna pick up a controller to play Grim Fandango on my laptop.. and use on the virtual console of the Wii.. and I can pick up a used gamecube PLUS a controller for less than a new controller. AND i never did get to play RE4.

Plus all the VF5 ads have made me want to play soul calibur 2 again...