Nintendo discusses the GameCube

Nintendo of America held a teleconference today discussing the performance of its GameCube hardware and looking ahead to 2002. Company executives said that although Nintendo has not received the final year-end sales numbers yet, it cited the NPD TRST numbers, which claimed shipment of 1.3 million GameCube units and sales of 1.2 million consoles by the end of 2001. In terms of lifetime forecasts for the GameCube, Nintendo feels that the console will outpace its own N64 both in terms of installed base and market share. The company expects that its GameCube worldwide installed base could grow as large as 60 million units.

In terms of specific software releases, George Harrison, VP of marketing and corporate communications at NOA, reiterated that high-profile games such as Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet, Eternal Darkness, Zelda, and Metroid are all currently on schedule to be released in 2002. In fact, in terms of first- and third-party software, the company currently plans to see more than 70 titles released for the console during the current year.

Nintendo launched the GameCube console on November 18. To date, several of its games, including Pikmin and Super Smash Bros. Melee, have made the NPD TRST top 10 sales charts.