AHC: Gamecube wins console wars

So what would it take for the Gamecube to win its generation?

What I thought was that they-
Fully acquire Rare Studios
Full size disks
Nintendo Purchases Sega when they hit rock bottom in '04

Any ideas?
 
earlier recognition of the wii market for super casual gaming maybe.
being able to play dvds would help a little. as would not being so late iirc.
agreed doing someting with the internet could help too, trouble is to get fully on the broadband wagon they have to launch rather late and we saw sega try it with dial up, te tech wasnt mature enough
 
Adding a DVD player would help, even if it increased prices. That was crucial in the PS2's success.

Another big problem for Nintendo was that it's games were not great or numerous.

Rare has not had much success since it split with Nintendo, but was hugely popular when they worked with Nintendo. If Nintendo were to keep Rare, and Rare were to continue it's success by releasing more high quality games in the Banjo Kazooie, 007, Concur's Fur Day, and Donkey Kong franchises, that would help.

Allowing a few M rated games like the Grand Theft Auto Trio of that generation would help.

I think this could make Nintendo more competitive, but I'm not sure that it is possible for Nintendo to beat the PS2 without giving Nintendo a boost with the N64 beforehand or sabotaging the PS2. The PS had far too much momentum coming off the previous generation.
 
Adding a DVD player would help, even if it increased prices. That was crucial in the PS2's success.

Another big problem for Nintendo was that it's games were not great or numerous.

Rare has not had much success since it split with Nintendo, but was hugely popular when they worked with Nintendo. If Nintendo were to keep Rare, and Rare were to continue it's success by releasing more high quality games in the Banjo Kazooie, 007, Concur's Fur Day, and Donkey Kong franchises, that would help.

Allowing a few M rated games like the Grand Theft Auto Trio of that generation would help.

I think this could make Nintendo more competitive, but I'm not sure that it is possible for Nintendo to beat the PS2 without giving Nintendo a boost with the N64 beforehand or sabotaging the PS2. The PS had far too much momentum coming off the previous generation.

How would we sabotage the PS2?
 
How would we sabotage the PS2?

The same way we sabotage everything on this website, a series of untimely deaths.

Really though, I don't know. The PS2 did just about everything right and had everything going for them. They started out backwards compatible with the winner of the previous generation and a DVD player. They also got a head start with a release over a year before the gamecube.

There were people who would buy the PS2 just for the DVD player at first, without feeling he need to buy games any time soon.

A lot of people who bought it didn't need to buy new games at first because they could still buy PSX games or use their old ones. This, combined with the one and a half year head start, gave them a near insurmountable advantage in the gaming section. I mean, by the time the Gamecube came out the PS2 had been making games for a year and a half, and still had all of it's hundreds of PS1 games still available. The Gamecube had like ten games out at that point.

If you were to push back the release date to around the Gamecubes and take away backwards compatibility, that could be an equalizer.

The PS2 outsold the Gamecube by something like 150 million to 20 million, it would take an insane amount of mistakes on Sony's part and Nintendo doing everything perfectly for Nintendo to win. Strengthening the N64 and then the Gamecube would probably be more realistic than crippling the PS2 to this extent.
 
There's an unfinished online component in the Gamecube form what I remember hearing. Finish that. It needs more exclusives. Better graphics aren't necessary, as the Wii has shown. Keep Rareware with Nintendo, have Microsoft try and push Blinx as their mascot as hard as they can while Sony keeps Crash Bandicoot and sticks with him. Valve breaks through on the computer market earlier before "hardcore gaming" breaks through on the Xbox.

At a certain point SEGA was at dire straights and Nintendo nearly bought them out. Have that happen. Have creative differences with Capcom and Megaman's creator happen earlier and have Capcom get bought out too. Snake is included in Super Smash Brother Melee as originally intended and Kojima keeps a closer relationship to Nintendo. Twin Snakes might even be a bigger hit.

Even then, it won't be the supreme victor of the console wars like the PS2 or the Wii.
 
I think to do this completely, you need a POD where Sony works with Nintendo to create a disc-based N64, completely averting the PlayStations entirely.
 
Either play Sony at their own game and go for the big multiformats (I.E. let GTA et al be released), or do the Wii divergence in to something targeted at kids, accepting that you're not going to compete for the big multiformats, earlier.
 
Thanks for all of the ideas, I need to go plan a TL now.

Would backward compatibility with the N64 be cost feasible?

If not how would an attachment due to play N64 games like the gameboy player?
 
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