At last! Nintendo stamps date and price point for GameCube Europe
In a live webcast today, Nintendo Europe chief David Gosen finally revealed when the GameCube will hit our shores and how much it will cost.
The pre-announcement rumours were proved true as Gosen confirmed that the machine will go on sale across Europe on May 3, 2002. The hardware bundle, which includes the console, one controller, power cable and an unspecified AV connector, will cost a mere 249 Euros, which equates to only £152.80!
In a bullish speech, Gosen made reference to the fact that the ‘Cube will cost less than the PlayStation 2 and almost half the cost of the upcoming behemoth that is Xbox.
Gosen confirmed that there will be more than 20 titles at launch but failed to give a complete list, confirming only FIFA, Tony Hawk 3, Batman, Burnout, Crazy Taxi, Sonic 2 and Star Fox. Annoyingly, Super Monkey Ball was not mentioned by Gosen, though it featured in a game medley video that followed the announcement.
The price point chosen by Nintendo Europe confirms an aggressive GameCube strategy for the coming years. Though the hardware is slightly more expensive than in the States, it was widely expected that the GameCube would be priced at £200. This did not happen.
There will be 500,000 consoles on day one, with 1 million units available over the ‘launch period’, whatever that means…
It is obvious that Nintendo is pitching a quality gaming system on merit and price, hoping that the Xbox’s half billion dollar marketing spend will prove fruitless.
The only hole in Nintendo’s news was the omission to reveal how much the games for the new system will cost, fuelling speculation that the company will stay true to its reputation of overcharging for software. We can reveal that GameCube software will cost 60 Euros per unit, a shade over £36.
In a subsequent press release, Nintendo released the following list of launch titles:
First party titles
WaveRace: Blue Storm
Luigi's Mansion
Third party titles
Star Wars Rogue Leader Rogue Squadron II (LucasArts) Exclusive
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (Sega) Exclusive
Super Monkey Ball (Sega)
ISS2 (Konami)
ESPN Winter Sports (Konami)
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 (Activision)
Spiderman (Activision)
Tarzan Untamed (Ubi Soft)
Batman Vengeance (Ubi Soft)
Donald Duck Quack Attack (Ubi Soft)
Crazy Taxi (Acclaim)
Burnout (Acclaim)
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX (Acclaim)
NHL Hitz (Midway)
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (Midway)
Universal Studios (Kemco)
Batman (Kemco)
Tetris World (THQ)
2002 FIFA World Cup (EA SPORTS)
In a bullish speech, Gosen made reference to the fact that the ‘Cube will cost less than the PlayStation 2 and almost half the cost of the upcoming behemoth that is Xbox.
Gosen confirmed that there will be more than 20 titles at launch but failed to give a complete list, confirming only FIFA, Tony Hawk 3, Batman, Burnout, Crazy Taxi, Sonic 2 and Star Fox. Annoyingly, Super Monkey Ball was not mentioned by Gosen, though it featured in a game medley video that followed the announcement.
The price point chosen by Nintendo Europe confirms an aggressive GameCube strategy for the coming years. Though the hardware is slightly more expensive than in the States, it was widely expected that the GameCube would be priced at £200. This did not happen.
There will be 500,000 consoles on day one, with 1 million units available over the ‘launch period’, whatever that means…
It is obvious that Nintendo is pitching a quality gaming system on merit and price, hoping that the Xbox’s half billion dollar marketing spend will prove fruitless.
The only hole in Nintendo’s news was the omission to reveal how much the games for the new system will cost, fuelling speculation that the company will stay true to its reputation of overcharging for software. We can reveal that GameCube software will cost 60 Euros per unit, a shade over £36.
In a subsequent press release, Nintendo released the following list of launch titles:
First party titles
WaveRace: Blue Storm
Luigi's Mansion
Third party titles
Star Wars Rogue Leader Rogue Squadron II (LucasArts) Exclusive
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (Sega) Exclusive
Super Monkey Ball (Sega)
ISS2 (Konami)
ESPN Winter Sports (Konami)
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 (Activision)
Spiderman (Activision)
Tarzan Untamed (Ubi Soft)
Batman Vengeance (Ubi Soft)
Donald Duck Quack Attack (Ubi Soft)
Crazy Taxi (Acclaim)
Burnout (Acclaim)
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX (Acclaim)
NHL Hitz (Midway)
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (Midway)
Universal Studios (Kemco)
Batman (Kemco)
Tetris World (THQ)
2002 FIFA World Cup (EA SPORTS)
People:
David Gosen
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