Reflecting on Nintendo's past: The troubled history of the Gamecube

"This is a job where you have a plan and you polish it endlessly while getting help from others. If Nintendo’s games fail to stand out as games that aren’t made that way proliferate, then it shows that the creation process is for nothing, which made me very sad. That was especially obvious during the Gamecube era; Nintendo titles were hardly even discussed by the general public back then."

- Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto reflecting on the Gamecube's ill fortunes. Nintendo is a company well acquainted with both ups and downs. Its Wii was the bestselling console of the prior generation; the Wii U is struggling to gain a solid foothold in today's market. In the early 2000s, Nintendo launched the Gamecube, which remains by far the least successful console in the company's history. But what lead to that, and what knowledge might the company be drawing on when it aims to make a success of the Wii U? This new, comprehensive history of the Gamecube contains a wealth of quotes and information which puts the system's wax and wane into perspective in terms of both Nintendo's descision-making process and history, as well as comparing it to the overall game industry of the time.