March 26^th, 2003 (12:00am) - In Europe (more specifically the UK) the GameCube hasn’t really picked since launch, except a small jump in sales due to Super Mario Sunshine. But just like in the other territories, Super Mario Sunshine satisfied the Nintendo fan, and wasn’t the game that could be used to push the sales of the GameCube. As time passed UK retailers such as Dixons and Argos decided to lower the price of the GameCube console considerably, this went into action nearly 2 weeks ago.

The week of March 22nd has proven, that due to the lowered price of the Nintendo GameCube, the free game promotion, and the release of Nintendo’s killer app Metroid Prime, that the GameCube has made its presence felt in the UK gaming world. Dixons alone sold 5,000 GameCubes in one day! And for that week GameCube sales grew nearly 60% while sales for the other consoles went down, putting the GameCube on top for that week, even toppling the almighty Playstation 2.

In similar news, Metroid Prime was the best selling title of that week as well, toppling EA’s The Sims after its long run in the top spot.

"We’ve had a great week," said the head of Nintendo’s European PR Shelly Friend. "GameCube sold around 14,000 units in the UK and on top of that Metroid Prime launched at number one in the all-formats charts. Now we’re just looking forward to the launch of GBA SP which we expect to be a great success."