although dixons/currys/pc world are getting rid of all their stock of gamecubes and not replenishing them, argos are just doing a clear out of existing stock.

they have been quoted as saying they havnt made a decision about whether to drop the cube or not.

whatever happens it shows that if a big company doesnt take the UK seriously then it bites them in the ass

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The biggest reason, I belive, that the Dixons group had bad sales for the gamecube is because they didn't do anything with it!

I work at a PC World and while the Xbox and PS2 have 2 and 4 meters of shelf space (respectivley), the GC only had one. And while the PS2 and Xbox were regually put onto the 'end caps', ie the shelfs at the end of an run, the GC hardly ever was (in fact I don't ever remember seeing it there)

That meant that there could be anything upto 5 meters of shelf space for the "big two" consoles, but only ever 1 meter, and in our store, hidden at the side of the building where unless you were looking for it, you would never see it.

Dixons only have thierselves to blame

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Shame really, I have a gamecube but its got a limited repetoire of games - technically better than the PS2 and fairly good value, just no games!

Rude!

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2017 Camaro 2SS

Yeah, but they recently negotiated with EA to continue their sports titles for GC. There are a number of new EA games to hit the shelves for GameCube this year. And with the price around 150.00 US including a game (Metroid Prime, or Mario Sunshine...there are others too) Then it really is a good bargain.

I have Cube and is very satisfied with it. But console games are expensive (at least here in Sweden).

With Metroid and Zelda in the pipeline I hope the sailes will go up.

/Me

Lets put this in context a moment. Nintendo have ben offering a free game with the machine at £129.99 for a while. Dixons had an abysmal Xmas with games, and are badly overstocked on all 3 machines - Sony (CEE) UK took consoles off them recently, as they are very low on stock themselves.

Argos were over confident at Xmas. The long and the short of it is that both companies over bought on GC hardware at Xmas and we are nearing the end of the finanical year and they need to celar inventory to meet stock targets.

The Nintendo offer ends Thursday and the Metroid Pak (Black GC + Metroid + Metroid Nameplate for console) goes on sale at £129.99. Both companies realised that they needed to shift units before this happened. Metroid Prime is a killer ap. I have has it running in my store (USA unit) and getting pre order after preorder. People have been buying the concoles from Argos/Dixons who ARE making a loss on each unit, and then coming to me to buy games/accessories thyey don`t carry. Dixons are kicking themselves - they missed out by not carrying Resident Evil Zero (one branch had to refund 20 preorders!) and they are not carrying Metroid Prime!

Over Xmas the market leaders left Dixons and Argos in their dust, and even though Game isn`t carrying the modem adaptors and braodband units for the GC they are outselling the Xbox Live kits at the moment!

I pity any company who drops GC now... Metroid Prime - Friday. Zelda 3rd May.

BTW I am a games buyer

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Sven Harvey
Amiga Mart in Micro Mart, Geekology 4M@, and other places
A1000, A2000, A1500 A500, CDTV, A500+, A600, A4000, A1200, CD32, AT A1200HD, A1-XE

xbox live has many more people than gamecube online... *many* more.

i also think you are forgetting all the people who were on the beta test for xbox live as well.

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@SvenHarvey

I should point out, though, that the perceived meaning of these actions can have far reaching impact. This is especially true in a market as fickle as gaming consoles. Platforms rarely seem to enjoy revivals to much of a degree and an apparent downturn always makes people jittery.

While I would conceed that the action may not be indicative of the market, it could certainly become an accidental self-fulfilling prophesy.

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Folding@Home Team AmigaWorld no: 33424

My two cents

I reckon that the GC hasn't been selling well, for a few reasons. First, it gets next to no shelf space (i know its been mentioned but I can't remember by who :P ), so its obvious that the shops emphasis is on the other two consoles. IF they wanted to sell them so bad, then they need to give them some more space so you actually know they are in the shop

Also, I dunno if other people have noticed, but in PC world especially their are ads claiming that PS2s ans Xboxes can shift 75-100M polys a second, while the GC says 15M/ps. People are fickle, they will want to buy the one with the biggest ooomph over the one with best game range IMO. Besides, when the game is running, with textures, AI, lighting etc that number will drop to be around the same level as the rest.

Nintendo also don't do enough advertising, so no-one actually knows whats on offer. You always see ads for PS2 and Xbox, but ads for GC are rare compared to the amount of exposure the other two consoles get. The only one I have seen recently is for Metroid Prime (which I hope to get today cos its my birthday ), and thats about it.

Another reason is that people see Nintendo as 'kiddy' compared to the others. Hardly true, I wouldn't consider Resident Evil, Die Hard Vendetta or TimeSplitters2 kiddy by any means... bleh! The reputation precedes then, I guess

On another note, I own a GC Personally I bought it cos I think that it has the strongest line up of games (Smash Bros, Mario Sunshine, Rogue leader, Metroid Prime, Zelda etc) over the other two, and also they have had a good history with consoles, i.e. SNES, NES, GBA's especially

Well, that turned out longer than I expected it to be