Manu
11-19-2001, 02:20 PM
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Parents with leaky wallets beware: Mario, everyone's favorite pot-bellied plumber, is back.
On Sunday, five years after launching its last video game console in the United States, Japan's Nintendo Co. Ltd. begun selling its next-generation machine, the GameCube.
While there will not be any GameCube games featuring Nintendo's famed plumber Mario until next summer, the Nintendo name alone -- a fixture in many American homes since it reinvented the video game market in 1985 -- is expected to drive sales of the system.
At $199, GameCube is $100 less than Sony Corp.'s year-old PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox, which launched on Thursday.
"The GameCube is a very well-positioned machine that will be the ideal kids' Christmas present for the next few years," said Trip Hawkins, chief executive of video game publisher 3DO Co. and a game industry legend.
While Xbox and PS2 are both pitched to appeal largely to young adults, GameCube is more skewed toward children ages 6 to 14, a group which has always been Nintendo's bread and butter.
The GameCube was originally set to ship to retailers by November 5, but in September Nintendo postponed that to November 18 in order to ensure it had enough units available at launch.
The company has said it would have 700,000 game machines available on Sunday and around 1.1 million by the end of the year. Some analysts expect that number may reach 1.2 million or 1.3 million units as Nintendo struggles to keep up with demand.
GameCube has been so anticipated that two games for the console made the holiday top-10 list in the annual PlayDate survey of toy and specialty game retailers released in mid-October. In contrast, no Xbox games made the list.
Even so, the hotter GameCube games are seen as still to come since the only Mario-related title, for now, is "Luigi's Mansion," a game featuring Mario's brother, Luigi. The game was not designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario's legendary creator.
"Luigi will sell. It's not fantastic, but it'll sell," said John Davison, editorial director of the Ziff Davis Media Game Group. "The Star Wars game will help," he added, referring to "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II."
GameCube only a game machine
While the GameCube, a purple and black bundle, is Nintendo's most powerful-ever console, it hews to the company's strategy of making hardware simply as a platform for games.
By contrast, both Sony and Microsoft are positioning their boxes as the foundation for home entertainment systems. The Xbox has a built-in hard drive and high-speed Internet port, and the PlayStation 2 will soon have both through external adapters. Both the Xbox and the PS2 can also play DVDs, a feature not available on GameCube because it uses a smaller, proprietary optical disc format for games.
GameCube's controllers come in four colors: Indigo, Jet (black), Spice (orange) and Clear Indigo.
Nintendo wanted to keep the GameCube price low and keep the audience focused on the games, analysts said.
"They're very clear, they've got a price point they felt they need to hit for the demographic," said Peter Moore, the president of Sega of America.
Online gaming is expected to be a $2.3 billion business by 2005, according to GartnerG2, a consultancy, but Nintendo's plans to enter that market remain unclear.
"Our assumption is that they may do something in 2004, 2005 but not before that," said P.J. McNealy, a senior analyst at GartnerG2.
Nintendo is so keen on keeping the spotlight on Mario and his crew that manufacturing partner Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. has said its Panasonic electronics unit will not release "Q," a hybrid DVD player-GameCube, in the United States; it launches in Japan in mid-December.
"I think that from a business perspective it would probably just confuse the consumer," said Joe Fielder, the site director of popular video game news and fan site GameSpot.com.
Japan softer than expected
The consensus is that sales of the GameCube have been weaker than expected since its launch in Japan, the second-largest market for games, two months ago.
Analysts have blamed the slowness in part on the timing of the console's launch, which came before the holiday shopping season, and the lack of a smash-hit title. GameCube went on sale in Japan with three games, while 15 titles will be available for the Sunday launch in the United States.
Despite its slower start in Japan, many analysts see GameCube outperforming the Xbox, which goes on sale in Japan in February. The GameCube has also sold out faster in initial online sales in the United States than the Microsoft machine.
"Given the strong line-up of exclusive games, including those to be offered by third-party game creators, Nintendo will have a better chance to gain a larger piece of the pie than Microsoft," said Yuta Sakurai, a senior analyst at Nomura Securities.
American retailers have been eager to get their hands on GameCube with major chains saying that indications of demand, such as pre-orders, were running near twice the expected supply.
"We should be able to fulfill everyone's need prior to Christmas," said Peter Roithmayr, vice president of the video games division at game retailer Electronics Boutique.
www.cnn.com
On Sunday, five years after launching its last video game console in the United States, Japan's Nintendo Co. Ltd. begun selling its next-generation machine, the GameCube.
While there will not be any GameCube games featuring Nintendo's famed plumber Mario until next summer, the Nintendo name alone -- a fixture in many American homes since it reinvented the video game market in 1985 -- is expected to drive sales of the system.
At $199, GameCube is $100 less than Sony Corp.'s year-old PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox, which launched on Thursday.
"The GameCube is a very well-positioned machine that will be the ideal kids' Christmas present for the next few years," said Trip Hawkins, chief executive of video game publisher 3DO Co. and a game industry legend.
While Xbox and PS2 are both pitched to appeal largely to young adults, GameCube is more skewed toward children ages 6 to 14, a group which has always been Nintendo's bread and butter.
The GameCube was originally set to ship to retailers by November 5, but in September Nintendo postponed that to November 18 in order to ensure it had enough units available at launch.
The company has said it would have 700,000 game machines available on Sunday and around 1.1 million by the end of the year. Some analysts expect that number may reach 1.2 million or 1.3 million units as Nintendo struggles to keep up with demand.
GameCube has been so anticipated that two games for the console made the holiday top-10 list in the annual PlayDate survey of toy and specialty game retailers released in mid-October. In contrast, no Xbox games made the list.
Even so, the hotter GameCube games are seen as still to come since the only Mario-related title, for now, is "Luigi's Mansion," a game featuring Mario's brother, Luigi. The game was not designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario's legendary creator.
"Luigi will sell. It's not fantastic, but it'll sell," said John Davison, editorial director of the Ziff Davis Media Game Group. "The Star Wars game will help," he added, referring to "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II."
GameCube only a game machine
While the GameCube, a purple and black bundle, is Nintendo's most powerful-ever console, it hews to the company's strategy of making hardware simply as a platform for games.
By contrast, both Sony and Microsoft are positioning their boxes as the foundation for home entertainment systems. The Xbox has a built-in hard drive and high-speed Internet port, and the PlayStation 2 will soon have both through external adapters. Both the Xbox and the PS2 can also play DVDs, a feature not available on GameCube because it uses a smaller, proprietary optical disc format for games.
GameCube's controllers come in four colors: Indigo, Jet (black), Spice (orange) and Clear Indigo.
Nintendo wanted to keep the GameCube price low and keep the audience focused on the games, analysts said.
"They're very clear, they've got a price point they felt they need to hit for the demographic," said Peter Moore, the president of Sega of America.
Online gaming is expected to be a $2.3 billion business by 2005, according to GartnerG2, a consultancy, but Nintendo's plans to enter that market remain unclear.
"Our assumption is that they may do something in 2004, 2005 but not before that," said P.J. McNealy, a senior analyst at GartnerG2.
Nintendo is so keen on keeping the spotlight on Mario and his crew that manufacturing partner Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. has said its Panasonic electronics unit will not release "Q," a hybrid DVD player-GameCube, in the United States; it launches in Japan in mid-December.
"I think that from a business perspective it would probably just confuse the consumer," said Joe Fielder, the site director of popular video game news and fan site GameSpot.com.
Japan softer than expected
The consensus is that sales of the GameCube have been weaker than expected since its launch in Japan, the second-largest market for games, two months ago.
Analysts have blamed the slowness in part on the timing of the console's launch, which came before the holiday shopping season, and the lack of a smash-hit title. GameCube went on sale in Japan with three games, while 15 titles will be available for the Sunday launch in the United States.
Despite its slower start in Japan, many analysts see GameCube outperforming the Xbox, which goes on sale in Japan in February. The GameCube has also sold out faster in initial online sales in the United States than the Microsoft machine.
"Given the strong line-up of exclusive games, including those to be offered by third-party game creators, Nintendo will have a better chance to gain a larger piece of the pie than Microsoft," said Yuta Sakurai, a senior analyst at Nomura Securities.
American retailers have been eager to get their hands on GameCube with major chains saying that indications of demand, such as pre-orders, were running near twice the expected supply.
"We should be able to fulfill everyone's need prior to Christmas," said Peter Roithmayr, vice president of the video games division at game retailer Electronics Boutique.
www.cnn.com