With the aging Nintendo 64 still adorning thousands of console gamers’ shelves, many are anxious to get their hands on something new.
Nintendo 64 is more or less a dead machine, as far as the industry is concerned, with only one final game left to be released–a Powerpuff Girls game–and diehard fans of the hardware manufacturer and video game developer have been waiting quite a while for GameCube, Nintendo 64’s successor, to be released. This gaming console, formerly code-named Dolphin by Nintendo insiders, was originally scheduled for a Spring 2000 release in Japan, with a release in United States the following fall.
Months slipped by without much information coming from Nintendo or Japan. When spring passed, the system was declared “vaporware” by many industry skeptics.
Later in the year, Nintendo finally pushed the system’s release date back further, but this date did not stick either.
It was not until SpaceWorld 2000, a Nintendo-sponsored trade show in Japan, that people around the world got their first taste of what the GameCube would look and be like, as well as a new tentative launch date of fall 2001.
This date stuck, and over the last year, journalists and gamers alike have learned more and more about the console and had the first chance to play software for it at May’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3.
There, a price point for the system was revealed to the public, as well as specific launch dates for both the United States and Japan.
The United States release has since been pushed back from the original Nov. 5 date to Nov.18, but the Japanese launch date held steady after the SpaceWorld 2001 show last month.
Sept. 14, 2001 was the date that echoed in excited gamers’ ears, and with no more delays, the system hit store shelves as promised.
Almost five years after the launch of Nintendo 64, Japanese gamers have what they have been waiting for.
Nintendo shipped roughly 500,000 units of the hardware to retailers around the nation, with three software launch titles: Luigi’s Mansion, Wave Race: Blue Storm and Super Monkey Ball.
The first two games were developed by Nintendo, while the third, Super Monkey Ball, was developed by former hardware producer, Sega.
Three launch titles do not seem like very much to most people, but this is a trademark of Nintendo.
The company relies heavily on its own software to make profit, and thus it has never catered to third-party developers as much as Sony and Microsoft have.
Lines formed outside popular stores throughout Japan by early morning, and a few stores even broke the rules and sold the GameCube a day earlier than Nintendo had planned due to early shipments.
By the end of the morning, nearly 80 percent of the first shipments were depleted, and countless fans walked away happy with their purchases.
Nintendo will ship thousands more systems to retailers before the Christmas holiday to fill the demands of consumers.
As for North American gamers, there is still a two-month wait for the system to arrive, but for most, the wait should be well worth it.