8th April 2003, 4:44 PM
Quote:No. If they do, the NGC will be pirated within months just like the PS2 and X-Box were... I don't want the size difference, but they MUST do something physical to stop piracy or it'll be like those consoles where anyone with a DVD burner can play nearly free games... mini-disks aren't exactly common...
Yes piracy is an important factor, but more important that that is that the N2004 disc capacity is at least equal to the PS3 and X-Box 2, and that licensing fees are the same as Sony and MS's. Nintendo still charges way too much per GC disc to third-parties.
Quote:I disagree. On the N64 Rare took a while to build up steam (in the first year we just got Blast Corps and KI Gold... good games, but not system-sellers or technical showpieces...). I'm sure the same would have happened with the Cube... and even though Nintendo does have more first/second party games now, the loss of Rare is very huge. With Rare they'd have several more AAA games a year... which would help a LOT.
How well would the N64 have done with no Rare? Do you think it'd have even been relevant by early 2000?
The N64 would have died a much eariler death without Rare, but the Gamecube is not in the same situation. From September 26, 1996 until May 30, 2001 (almost five years) Nintendo released about 40 first and second-party Nintendo 64 games in the U.S., 11 of them being Rare titles. Comparitively, in just 17 months Nintendo has released about 14 Gamecube games. If The Gamecube were to live as long as the Nintendo 64, we would have roughly 50 or so Nintendo games total. That's a very rough estimate, but it does show you that the Gamecube will have more than enough Nintendo-published games without Rare's help. I'm also not counting the fact that Nintendo's third party support is much better now than it was during the N64 days and how Namco, Sega, and other third parties are developing Nintendo games as well.
There's also the fact that several key Rare members left the company to form their own studios, all of which are currently developing for the Gamecube. Hopefully the money Nintendo got from the Rare sale will help them form new development studios and get more third-party support.