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"In a tough economy, we've found the sweet spot on pricing, and players are grabbing Nintendo GameCube systems off the shelves at the fastest rate since the console's debut," said George Harrison, senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, Nintendo of America. "With an $80 price advantage over other systems and the impending launch of the mega-hit Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, this offer is just too good to resist."
Nintendo also pointed out that -- combined with sales of Game Boy Advance SP -- it accounts for "half of all system sales in 2003." Further, GameCube is the only current-generation console to show a year-to-date sales increase compared to 2002. GameCube sales are two percent higher than last year, but Xbox dropped three percent and PlayStation 17.5 percent according to NPD data through September. However, considering that GameCube sold less than the other two systems in the prior year, the increase in 2003 may not mean as much as the firm would like.
The company hopes that the November 17 release of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for GameCube will keep sales momentum going through the end of the year. Nintendo will also release Mario Party 5 and 1080 Snowboarding for its console in November and December respectively.
