So if the Wiimote is such a revolution...

[Shpeshal Ed]

Does anyone think it would have been enough to either save, or greatly increase sales of the Gamecube?

It's no secret the Wiimote WAS originally planned as an accessory for the Gamecube to invigorate sales, but obviously once the DS exploded Nintendo figured they could use the blue ocean strategy for a console too.

So do any of you think the Wiimote/WiiSports combo could have saved the Cube, or helped it keep up with the PS2? I mean, it IS what's selling the Wii right now...

[CaptainMarbles]

It was 2 little 2 late for the GC.

Nintendo did the right thing standard>accessory always.

[Leonidas]

Iwata:
When we launched GameCube, I was well aware of the significant leap in technology between GameCube and PlayStation2 and their predecessors. As a person who could easily perceive a big difference between them, it was really shocking to realize that those who are not interested in such technical matters could not even tell the difference in the graphical expression powers of GameCube and PlayStation2 on one hand, and Nintendo64 and PlayStation on the other. And I began to believe the general public people would feel this way more and more. Internally at Nintendo, I often talked about my assumption and proposed(to Takeda and Miyamoto when we were discussing what we should do with the design of Wii), “if fewer and fewer people will appreciate the traditional way to improve hardware, why don’t we focus on other aspects?”

ps;

Whenever we are working on so-called next generation hardware, we are always thinking in terms of the future. We need to forecast what the future will be like with the expected evolution of new technologies which are available at any given time, and try to identify the so-called “sweet spot” of technology over the next few years. However, not everything we have designed has actually been introduced to the market. We have produced a number of hardware prototypes which did not in the end reach the market place.

[Tag]

No, the gamecube had a kiddie image attached to it that it could never escape from. I highly doubt anything could have changed that. The purple color, the lunchbox shape with handle, there were too many factors. And then there were (most of) the commercials. Seriously, I'm as big a Nintendo fan as anyone, but when I saw that "clean is better than dirty dirty's better than clean" ad for Mario Sunshine, I felt like ramming some random Nintendo executive's head into a wall. When you're already labeled as a system for the kiddies, then making a commercial that roughly resembles a scene from barnie isn't going to help you, especially when it's one of your key franchises that your hoping will actually sell to more than 10 year olds. By then it was safe to say gamecube could settle into irrelevancy for the rest of it's lifespan, I almost quit gaming on consoles (kind of did for awhile) until I heard how awesome the wii was going to be.

YouTube - Super Mario Sunshine Commercial

Also it's more than just wii sports and wiimote. Part of the reason the wii is selling (like anything else) is because of it's image. It's chic, while the PS3 and 360 are considered hardcore systems. If the PS2 was considered a hardcore system it wouldnt have sold as well as it did.

[cyclone87]

Originally Posted by Tag

It's chic, while the PS3 and 360 are considered hardcore systems. If the PS2 was considered a hardcore system it wouldnt have sold as well as it did.

The PS2 was considered hardcore, it just had so many games that it was able to cater to other types of gaming crowds as well.

[Argon]

It makes sense that the only reason they DIDN'T release it for the 'cube was because they figured it wouldn't help an already-lost war. They took a good long look at waggle, and asked themselves if people who bought a PS2 would buy a gamecube just for waggle (and also if they'd pay the ~$40 for each Wiimote and then another ~$10 for the sensor bar).

[Leonidas]

Or, because that might (would, duh) have been jumping the gun.

I attribute the ps2's success to ps1's win over the n64 (surprise? not really, nintendo wasn't as friendly with 3rd parties in those days, cd's [and thus, modchips] weren't the only reason for the ps1's success, because the hardware was inferior. Software wise, resident evil and ff were though), and it was the cheapest dvd player out.

Ha, but now it's backfired on them, nobody cares about owning a bluray.

Nintendo turned the tide, right on cue, but it's not solely because of waggle.


Oh and at least the gamecube (and it's library) lives on. Can't say that about xbox or ps2 huh? Gamecube failed? Barely. Are people still ripping on the xbox 1's potato controllers? Or even ps2's fantastic fail rate? No. The only reason the gamecube still gets talked about is because it's still relevant.

Does anyone have a source that indicates nintendo actually considering the wii remote for the gamecube? Or is all we're hearing is that factor5 mentioned it in 2001, so nintendo must just be that ahead of the game? (wikipedia)

[InsightGoalie]

I'm pretty sure at no point was the PS2 the cheapest DVD player out. It was a reasonably priced DVD player that also played games.

[boffo]

Originally Posted by Leonidas

Oh and at least the gamecube (and it's library) lives on. Can't say that about xbox or ps2 huh? Gamecube failed? Barely. Are people still ripping on the xbox 1's potato controllers? Or even ps2's fantastic fail rate? No. The only reason the gamecube still gets talked about is because it's still relevant.

You do realize that the PS2 is still coming out with new games and selling extremely well. The Gamecube barely has any space left on the shelves at game stores, while the PS2's is still as big as any systems. The only times the Gamecube gets talked about usually involves failure in the same sentence. It's only real relevance is to show how much Nintendo has turned things around.

[NoOutlet]

Those last two statements aren't true. Melee basically keeps the GameCube(or at least the GameCube compatibility of the Wii) relevant by itself.

Let's assume that Nintendo came up with the entire design of the Wiimote before it was nearly time to release a new system(Factor 5 says they had a motion-sensing controller at GC launch, not a wand-shaped, motion-sensing pointer device with buttons; in fact it sounds like it was basically a GameCube-style SixAxis).
The Wii is the revolution, not the Wii-mote. The reason the Wii is a revolution is because the Wii-mote is the standard controller. If Nintendo made an alternative Wii-mote like controller that only worked on whatever games were developed with it in mind(read: only a few Nintendo games), only hardcore collectors would have paid it any attention at all.
It's just a completely different thing to have a new controller as an alternative and to have a new controller as your standard. By making it standard, you basically force developers to develop games with the Wii-mote in mind.
How many third parties are using the GameCube controllers or even the classic controller for their Wii games? It would have been the same if the Wii-mote worked with the GameCube.