cheap Gamecubes - attracting more people?

I would have to say that this is so. I have noticed that in my school there has been a vast increase in the number of people who have a Gamecube, some of the teachers even have them. When I asked them why they chose it over the Xbox and Playstation 2 they said,
"Because it was cheap".
Quite a few people are buying it to go with an existing console, like my friend (for those who read the worst thing thread, he is the one who broke tekken tag and dented my PS2). My friend thought that nintendo were rubbish and wouldn't go within a 10 mile radius of one, but now, because of the cheaper prices he has changed his mind and is getting one tomorrow!
What are your thoughts?

Nice idea, but, why buy a console because of it's price, I ask. Reason? Well, I prefer to take a look at what I am buying, have some user input and actually get it for it's quality, hence why I only have a Gamecube out of the 3, but, price does play a part in attracting buyers, to an extent. Although all console prices are going down... PS2... still sells? It's odd how it keeps on selling, I mean, many must already own one by now, and still the reputation perhaps is another one of those irratating little factors.

Reputation?! Damn. It's a shame that the typical sterile views of the GameCube are "childish" and all these petty views, but, it seems that it's perhaps shifting toward the "quality over price" and many do see the 'Cube as a worthy oppontent.

It seems that many are purchasing a GameCube, but, although it maybe not to Nintendo's expectations, it's still a worthy console in the industry that has some fine competition, and, it probably intercepts at the heart of user opinions, and so, many factors do influence, and, I hope in the future, stupid reputations are diminished.

Ok, I wonder how my reply went from what it is to that...

JB

thanks for your reply JB.

Regarding Nintendos "childish image".
When I go into HMV and Virgin to look at the games I usually find that younger gamers are looking at the PS2 and Xbox games and that the older gamers are looking at the gamecube. This may be because the younger children are trying to appear mature and to follow the crowd of fellow classmates or something like that.
The older gamers appear to have the attitude of 'been there done that'. During the playstation reign of the videogames world realism was possibly the key to it's success. Older gamers may want an escape from reality and they don't really care about following crowds and looking 'cool', they're more interested in the gameplay of games and as one person said on TGN are not "graphics whores". But what is cool, is it following everybody else or is it standing for your beliefs and doing what you want to do.
thankyou for reading my incessant ramblings.
Anybody else got any opinions?

I think a lot of PS2's success is due to parents lack of knowkedge. To the uneducated parent a games console is called a Playstation, it's a generic term much like vacum's being called hoovers. So they don't know anything about other consoles to even think about them.

originally posted by Peletboy
I think a lot of PS2's success is due to parents lack of knowkedge. To the uneducated parent a games console is called a Playstation, it's a generic term much like vacum's being called hoovers. So they don't know anything about other consoles to even think about them.

Good point. This is the reason why Nintendo need much stronger advertising. They need to make people, especially uneducated parents, aware that there is more than just the Playstation competing for their childs sparetime. Stronger and plentiful advertising would increase awareness of the Gamecube and the parents would start to consider it as a possible option to buy.
Of course this goes without saying.

[ Edited by Jay on 2003/4/9 20:20 ]

Relating to my post above, and the other replies, it seems that it is a standard name, "Playstation", but, also from a reputation point of view - SONY. The, in my opinion, most reputable entertainment company - from minature CDs/minidiscs to the all out PC, it seems that they cover a mass number of electronics and are considered the "best of the best". Also, from Peletboy's view, it seems that, "parents lack of knowkedge" is also a key factor.

Money? Plays a major role in sales, obviously, but, prices also come into consideration (see my above post).

JB

What I don't get is Sony make such good reliable elcetronic products (Walkman's, Stereo's etc) but the Playstation in notoriously unreliable. Very strange indeed!

Agreed, but, from a reputation point of view, it seems that the dominating area appears to be SONY for the electronics, MS for the computer systems and Nintendo for gaming, or so I should be. I think the other companies should do what they do best, like Nintendo, and not try too much to verge into other areas or it will become a little too seeded.

SONY are known for their revolutions in the electronics industry yet they do not put their full effort into a single project, the same with the Xbox. I'm not saying that this is bad as both consoles have a wide range of games which IMO appeal to the same audience and both are selling well and both consoles encorporate the companies' speciality (Xbox's and Playstation"'s broadband and DVD cpapbilities. Nintendo primarily make games and aim them at a different audience. I would say that Nintendo has the bigger franchises and a lot of people have grown up with names like Mario and Samus. It wasn't until the Playstation was released that Nintendo's Reputation went from game revolutionists to 'kiddy game makers'.
I think that the gamecubes poor(ish) sales over here are down not only to reputation and parent knowledge but also down to a lack of extra features which customers consider a bonus. Another hUGE selling point of the PS2 (for me at least) was the ability to play PS games. If the Xbox could play PC games as well I would say that it would probably be leading the way in sales. Speaking of playing PC games on consoles, has anybody heard any news on that 'Phantom' console?

i think it is living upto it's name.anyway, i have a netmd and it is brilliant. really clear sound and if i am in a mood with my parents i can just upload my latest less than jake/five iron frenzy album and totally screw up the hard drive.

To shift back onto the original focus of thge GameCube being cheap, I think this is more than just a thing. Nintendo are starting to act and are being more robust in their movements as fighting with the competition goes. The playstation is a very clever machine. Some research has been done into why some many are sold and apparently [and to through a big french spanner into the works] the console ir rigged. Many of you may have noticed that the biggest and bets games are on blue and gold disks. Pro Evo, MGS and the like, and the thing is after a whil ethe laser wont read the coloured didks, it alyaws happends oustside warenty and so if you want to play the game you'll have to buy the console again.

As for Nintendo we are starting to see the chages in the industry. People are wanting more game to play and so they must look to another console, Microsoft seem to be flapping a bit at the moment, and Nintendo seem to be picking up fans by the million. I have high hopes for Nintendo this year, and if they handle things right why shouldn't I?

although i'm not too glad that nintendo have been forced to lower the price (well, it isn't really nintendo doing the price cutting). But if it's making the gamecube sell by the bucket load, then i'm all for it. Each gamecube costs 20 quid to make. and each xbox costs 250 to make. So it dosn't matter how much the lower it, they're still going to make an extremely tidy profit. Unlike microsoft who havn't made a penny profit on the xbox so far, infact they've lost over 150 million right now. Can someone PLEASE tell me the whole point in the xbox?

Maybe they dont care about money, they just want to create great games...
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MICROSOFT IN IT FOR THE GAMES THAT'S PRICELESS!!!

If Nintendo were in it solely for the games, then they wouldn't have stuck with cartradges, charging us an outragous