Warp Pipe seals gaming contract

Nice to see the project being put to excellent use. They must be pretty happy - "our project just became commercial middleware that provides an online solution for Gamecube"!

Even better, from what it sounds like they're hoping to retain the free aspect of the software (last time I played a subscription-free online console title was with PSO on Dreamcast).

£10 says one of the companies involved won't be Nintendo. *shot*

I completely forgot about Warp Pipe for ages, and to be honest they are the only reason I never bought PAL copies of 1080 and Mario Kart DD. The NTSC versions were online capable and all you needed was the necessary equipment, broadband and their software.

I hope that it's Nintendo that have seen their potential in solving the issue of getting GC online, with a better job of getting DS and Rev online with less difficulty. Nintendo need all the friends they can get. Go Warp Pipe.

There's a chance it might well be Nintendo, someone posted on the Cube Europe forums that apparently the Warp-pipe logo has been seen on Nintendo DS box designs. Don't know how believable that is, I pretty much scoffed at it, but now I'm not so sure.

It's all a case of too little, too late, IMO

Slamming the the barn door shut after the boat's gone out, and all that.

According the ChartTrack, this week's software sales by platform break down like this...

38.6% PC (Sims2 power!)
37.7% PS2
12.7% Xbox
5.1% GBA
3.3% GC
2.5% PS1

Selling less than GBA and barely more than PS1 is just a bit of joke. Personally, I blame Nintendo for this lack of consumer take-up and publisher support.

LOL ChartTracker only tracks UK and Ireland - Those huge video game hotbeds. According to Reuters video game sales breakdown

52% North America
22% Japan
13% Europe

So even if UK and Ireland make up half of video game sales in Europe thats a very insignificant 7% of overall sales. I guess Euros haven't figured out how modchips/DVD burners work looking at those breakdowns. LOL who pays for retail games.

That is an excellent slogan...

"Your opponent is in another castle"

Is that Song's doing, or Warp Pipe's own thing? I'm assuming the latter. Warp Pipe is really a great little thing going, so I hope Nintendo throws them a bone sometime along the way.

Any of you SPOnG guys heard anything on this and want to shed a bit more light?

Sigh. Yes, I know that ChartTrack only compiles charts from UK/IE sales.

I also know that Europe doesn't constitute a majority share of worldwide software sales figures.

None of this changes the fact that the GC is flagging - badly.

Here are SPOnG's figures based on visitors in the last 28 days. Notice any similarities?

27.69% PC
24.94% PS2
10.42% Xbox
7.95% GBA
7.20% PS1
6.63% GC
1.69% DC
1.64% GBC
1.20% N64
1.10% SNES



So just because it's only, say, 7% of worldwide sales, it makes the breakdown somehow insignificant? It's not even slightly indicative of the GC performance worldwide?

LOL!

Let's have a look at the figures, kiddo...

Japan is certainly the GC's strongest territory. I've just run a quick tot up on the weekly top 100 Media Create figures for JP. Not perfect, but a damn good indicator. GC comes in at a very, very distant third place.

61.6% PS2
37.6% GBA
0.77% GC

I don't have US software sales figures, so I'm left to speculate that the breakdown in the US is pretty similar to EU - GC in fourth or fifth place with less than 10% market share.

Put all this together and it's clear the GC is languishing on the cusp of annihilation. Pathetic software sales = no future. Losing support from the like of EA, ragardless of what you think of their wares, is just speeding up the process.



Yes EU has modchips and DVD burners. We even have electricity, clean running water, broadband and BitTorrent. Woo!
In case you're suffering from that condition particular to an unsettling number of US citizens- a blinkered view of the "world" - there's also a recently passed law in the UK that makes modchips illegal.



LOL. People who don't want their favourite studios to go out of business? Thieving fool.

Hmm. Is advocating piracy in a video games forum similar to mentioning on UseNet a certain uber-right wing movement, in power in German during the early/mid-20th century? :)

I really think Nintendo need to help Warp Pipe, who are plugging a gap that Nintendo left wide open. Do remember though that Nintendo said that they would do an online service when they could find a more viable means of getting it to gamers than what currently exists. They never ever said that, they'd never go online at all.

Ok Config, forget the stats. We got the message. Everyone knows that GC sales aren't what Nintendo hoped for, but right now I feel Nintendo are focusing on the future, the DS and REV as I call it. This is where Warp Pipe might be able to play a vital part in the implimentation of some kind of online connectivity, at home with REV or away with the DS, perhaps WI-FI for both. If they are in league with Nintendo (which I'd say is highly likely seeing as Xbox Live and Play Online are already up and running), then they might be on their payroll and very Nintendo like will be sworn to secrecy until the time is right. However if it's someone else and Warp Pipe are working with all formats then that's a good thing for every gamer out there.

Whatever happens I'd like to wish them the best for the future and fixing a GC problem that needed sorting. If Nintendo had not removed the online play parts from Mario DD and 1080 I wouldn't have to import them, would I Nintendo?

As for the mod chip front, think about all the stuff we do that is illegal? Some laws are made to be broken, and if I want a mod chip I'll get one thank you. People who buy mod chips aren't looking for a free ride with pirate games, they just want to play imported games which like DVDs is their right. I buy import DVDs and games so does that mean I am now a criminal? Ofcourse not. Banning mod chips won't stop piracy because technology is like a running gazalle like thief, hard to catch but always moving and learning new tricks. You can also still buy them online so how is banning the chips in the UK gonna help Sony? It will deter and make difficult, but it won't stop people chipping their consoles. I'm also sure that evryone is free to change parts of their car when they buy it, so why not the same with my console? Talk about double standards. Has modding your car now becoming illegal overnight? I think not.

It's a stupid law meant to appease large corps with lots of money. I in no way condone piracy, but this isn't the way to deal with it and if I want to chip my consoles I will do so, and not be dictated to in a democratic country just to appease Sony, Nintendo etc. I'm sure gamers that play and buy imports are a hardcore minority anyway.

Hope isn't enough! Nintendo have screwed up again.
My point was, as the story was about Warp Pipe for GC, that GC is pretty much dead in the water, and no amount of on-line jiggery pokery is going to revive it.

The platform needs exclusive, must-have titles that appeal to a broad audience (boy, I had to struggle to avoid using "mass market" there)



As do I. I love my GC, and I really wish there were more reasons for me to dust it off. However, nearly every GC title I want to play is available on PS2, and I prefer the PS2 controller.



I have absolutely no issue with mod chipping being used to play legitimate games from other regions. I think it's plain stupid that the copy protection and region lock are rolled into the same blob of hardware.

However, I know far too many people who had their machine chipped purely to play pirated games. I take every opportunity to tell them about the damage they're causing the industry and how they're prolly fuelling some crack addicts habit, but I doubt they really give a s**t.

I totally agree, id say very few get it chipped for importing reasons. You only have to check out certain markets at the weekends to see the availability and quantity of these pirated games. I also think that this has been a reason for porr GC sales, on top of many other reasons of course. People who own chipped machines do also buy full price software for birthdays, chrimbo etc but they really do alot of damage to the industry. What temptation is there for these people to own a Gamecube? Becuase they will only buy a few games a year and the rest of the time they dont want to pay anything. Toi them the Gamecube is a rip-off no matter what price its sold for.

Hear what you are saying on the Warp Pipe front but Warp Pipe isn't anything new. They have been around since shortly after GC was released in the US. They saw something wrong with lack of online support on GC and decided to do something about it.

If their move and new secret backers aid the cause of getting the REV online that's good. We know Nintendo messed up on it but it's now history and next year is most likely GCs last full one before REV. As much as I to hate it, it's not worth stressing about. Nintendo now know they have to hit the track rolling in order to compete with Sony, and perhaps this is part of it.

As for the piracy angle, there are too many people who don't care about the industry and lazily indulge in forbidden pirate games on the cheap. When you add those careless gamers to the careless suits that sell official stuff, there is a worrying patern emerging. If this continues the industry could go bust.

On the note of piracy though.

If these people didnt have the chance to buy chipped machines and pirated games would they even bother with consoles? Is the industry getting the fiqures from lost revenue or potential lost revenue from reports of siezed goods?

My point is that i dont necessarily think (at times) that people buying these games does THAT much damage. Im sure certain sales are lost but i still think that these people only own a console because they can get cheap games. If they couldnt i dont think alot of them would bother. I know that any guys i know who are into games dont honestly bother with pirates because they mainly believe that it cheapens the experience and gives them no drive to finish a title. I agree with that and if i pay top dollar for a game im sure as hell going to at least attempt to finish to it.

Yes, they are causing damage.

Most hardware is manufactured at a loss (a very big one in the case of the Xbox), with obvious exception of PCs and (apparently) the Gamecube.

The only way that manufacturers can recoup those costs is accessories and through selling licences to publish software for the system.

Accessories alone won't cover the cost - even if every console owner bought a couple of memory cards and second joypad. Without sufficient software sales, the console manufacturers will bust. Even if they don't, they may well think twice about moving to the next gen (see: SEGA)

So, piracy damages not just the publisher and, perhaps most importantly, the developer, but also the hardware manufacturer.

I totally agree with your point of view but i dont understand were these statements come from and how factual they are.
If they claim they are losing money due to piracy then what are they comparing it to? Ive never read a report yet that can narrow it down fully.

Im not disagreeing with situation im just yet to hear it being explained fully and from a totally nutruel perspective.