GameCube sales have been on the decline since the console first launched in November 2001 alongside the Xbox. No matter what price Nintendo dropped the console to, no matter what bundles they offered, Nintendo has not been able to make the GameCube a successful game console. In fact, the worldwide sales of the GameCube (15m) are less than half the sales of the Nintendo 64 (32m). Even more humiliating is the fact that Microsoft’s Xbox has sold more than Nintendo’s console on a worldwide scale and is more popular now than it had been first it first launched. That’s pretty impressive considering that Microsoft is newcomer to the home console industry. So, after taking note of these facts, I began to wonder why the GameCube has failed to reach the success of its predecessors.

Nintendo is often claimed to be an innovator in the industry, however all they have proven with the GameCube is that the company is too damn conservative for its own good, fearing to step into the realm of online gaming, the true future of gaming. Instead, the company has attempted to supplement the lack of online gaming on their home console with a half-assed attempt at innovation with GameCube/ GBA Connectivity.

GameCube/Game Boy Advance Connectivity is by far the worst gimmick Nintendo has ever attempted to market. In all honesty, I don’t think any game developer could’ve thought of any kind of innovative or unique gameplay concept to be implemented by connecting a Game Boy Advance to a GameCube. This entire gimmick of connectivity is no more innovative than having multiple controller ports on a gaming console itself. Guess what? The GameCube already has that.

Thankfully, consumers completely rejected Nintendo’s supplement for online gaming. Even after attempting to support it with powerhouse franchises such as Zelda and Final Fantasy it still failed to generate much interest. As of today, the gimmick known as connectivity is dead and buried.

The only true innovation in the home console world this generation isn’t an innovation to begin with. It’s the proper implementation of online gaming on home consoles, something Sega attempted to make mainstream with the Dreamcast, and something which Microsoft successfully made mainstream with the Xbox and Xbox Live.

I don’t think either Nintendo or Sony could’ve predicted what the Xbox and Xbox Live has done for the home console gaming industry. Due to the popularity of Microsoft’s online game service, millions of gamers have gone online to satisfy their multiplayer gaming needs, and satisfied they are. Because Nintendo hasn’t brought the GameCube online, as both Sony and Microsoft have with their respective consoles, consumer interest in the console is at an all time low, as is the interest of publishers and developers.

If there are no consumers, there are no sales. If there are no sales on a particular platform, the money, time and effort put into a game’s development for a specific platform has been wasted completely.

With third parties dropping GameCube support because of the company’s refusal to provide any kind of online game service, there’s a lack of compelling software available for the platform. Sure, if the last console you owned had been a Nintendo 64, it is likely that the amount of games available on the GameCube seems pretty large, but compared to the library of games available on the Xbox and PlayStation 2, the GameCube doesn’t see to offer a large variety of game titles. Of course, the quality of many of the GameCube’s exclusive games are a good enough reason alone to own the console, however the same can be said about the other two, which arguably have even more quality exclusives than the GameCube.

I’m not going to lie, I love most of Nintendo’s games. I’ve spent endless nights playing games such as Metroid Prime, F-Zero GX, Super Smash Bros. Melee and a handful of other GameCube titles, however, Nintendo’s constant want to create spin-offs such as Mario Party and the upcoming Mario Baseball is somewhat sickening. In fact, I hate them for it.

Instead, of going out and developing new intellectual properties, Nintendo has been assaulting gamers with the same franchises over and over and over again; the same franchises that have been around since the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and one or two that have been around from before that. Things have come to point where people see an x game with Mario’s face on the cover and can’t help but think "Who cares? It’s just another Mario game." Of course, there are times when I see game’s like Pikmin and begin to think that perhaps Nintendo is going in the right direction, but then crap like Mario Baseball jumps into the limelight.

While it’s nice to see sequels to an established game series, dozens of spin-offs can only harm the company’s consumer image. Nintendo claims that they innovate, but it’s incredibly difficult to see that when this innovation is covered by the shroud of company mascots that have existed for twenty years.

In the eyes of many, the GameCube and Nintendo is still perceived to be "kiddy." Although, the company has made strides by having games like Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil headline the console’s list of quality titles, it still doesn’t help to have the console launching in purple with a design reminiscent of lunchbox. Additionally, taking one of the company’s most respected franchises and making it look like a Saturday morning cartoon meant for pre-schoolers doesn’t help much either. Luckily, Nintendo has realized its mistake with a cel-shaded Zelda and is focusing on delivering the Zelda game fans wanted on the GameCube to begin with, an epic Zelda with a darker atmosphere and mature theme. However, it’s unfortunate that due to the game coming at the very end of the GameCube’s lifespan, it will not cause much of a surge sales, if anything at all. I believe that the game should be delayed to the Nintendo’s next home console. It will do more good for that console’s sales performance than it could ever hope to accomplish on the dying GameCube.

There’s no denying that the GameCube has an excellent library of exclusive game titles that Nintendo fans are sure to enjoy, however, the amount of Nintendo fans that exist in the modern day is much less than it had been twenty, ten, or even five years ago. It should no longer be Nintendo’s concern to cater to their shrinking fan following. It should be their concern to cater to newer fans and they simply aren’t doing that. Nintendo has this want to dictate the future of the industry (a subject which I’ll discuss in my next editorial) and consumers are rejecting Nintendo’s efforts. Hopefully the "Revolution" will live up to its namesake and provide just that, a revolution, because one is needed within the once undisputed king of home console gaming, not the industry itself.