Nintendo Pulls The Plug On GameCube // UPDATE...

Nintendo Pulls The Plug On GameCube // UPDATE - Not!

As it stands now, the PlayStation 2 is the only "last-gen" console still left alive - and going strong. As you may remember, Microsoft pulled the plug on the Xbox production a long, long time ago (in July 2005), and now Nintendo acknowledges that they are no longer making GameCubes either. If you were still planning to buy one, though, there's no need to despair, because Nintendo still has plenty of units stocked up, and the price can only go down from now on. Well, at least until it becomes a classic rarity of sorts.

The nostalgic news (I wouldn't call it outright sad) was given by Perrin Kaplan, vice president of Nintendo America, in an interview conducted by GameDaily BIZ:

PK: Are we producing any more GameCubes? No. But do we have the inventory there for people to still purchase? Yes.

BIZ: But do you have the software support? (...) My point is that from a first-party perspective, just like Microsoft doesn't put out new original Xbox games, Nintendo is no longer supporting GameCube. Can you confirm that?

PK: Right, that's correct.

So there you have it, Nintendo's playful purble box that launched in 2001, and unfortunately ended on the third place of its generation of consoles, has now officially come to the end of its life cycle. It may still linger on for a while, with third-party games, but Nintendo won't be releasing any more GameCube titles. *sigh*

By the way, GameDaily's interview is actually about upcoming Wii features, so you might want to check it out in full.

And to think that Sony abandoned the PSOne production just last year...

UPDATE: Oh-oh, looks like mister Perrin Kaplan buried the GameCube alive! According to Nintendo UK, speaking to Eurogamer today, "Nintendo is still continuing production of GameCube hardware and GameCube software", and globally it still supports the console. Pff, classic example of communication breakdown.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)