GameCube sells to the tune of $98m

Nintendo has confused gamers and journalists alike by claiming victory in the console race Stateside. Combined US retail revenues for GameCube (hardware systems, games and accessories) come to more than $98 million. Nintendo are comparing this to the three-day opening weekend ticket sales of the Harry Potter movie, which topped $93.5 million. Nintendo's executive veepee of sales and marketing Peter Main was on hand to celebrate. "Some 700,000 NINTENDO GAMECUBE hardware systems moved to retail locations in time for our launch, our largest first day supply ever," he told journalists in a prepared statement. "But right now it appears that none of them may be left by this weekend." The official press release suggests hardware sales were more than twice that of Xbox. We find this quite hard to believe though, because Xbox shipped 300,000 units, and if Nintendo shipped 600,000 GameCubes they would be discussing retail revenues of $120 million… Of course, that depends on your interpretation of "combined retail revenues", but if Nintendo wants to peddle ambiguity they shouldn't be surprised if it bites them in the behind. The fact of the matter is that 700,000 units is more than double that of Xbox (which is in very short supply right now, and may not even reach 700,000 units shipped until mid-December), and more than Sony managed to ship at last year's PS2 launch to boot. Nintendo also claims that Luigi's Mansion was the most popular title, followed by the brilliant Rogue Leader from LucasArts and then Wave Race: Blue Storm, and that GameCube has proven more popular even than GameBoy Advance in sales terms. Related Feature - GameCube Sunday