If you try and think of Nintendo consoles
that flopped, you might come up with the Virtual Boy, which was clunky and ugly and gave people
headaches. Or the Wii U, which confused people so much
that they thought it was just a new add on for the Wii. Both those consoles had low sales and were
disliked by fans, too. But if you ask Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator
of Mario, which Nintendo console HE regrets, you’ll get a completely different answer. And it’s a console that YOU probably would
never suspect was a failure. Let me tell you about the console that Nintendo
regrets. [Toad in a Hole]
Ok, so it’s not the Nintendo 64, but that’s the era where things began going wrong. Because while Nintendo put out some banger
games, Shigeru Miyamoto was a little unhappy. He felt like he wasn’t spending anywhere
near enough time making games. “I was endlessly fascinated with 3D worlds,”
he says, “but what with all the issues I had to tinker with in terms of rendering and
processing speed, it got to the point where I didn't know who was making the games any
longer”. So, in other words, he just wanted to focus
on the design, on how high Mario should jump, how much damage Link’s sword should inflict. But instead, he was distracted by the tech. By framerate and draw distance. Zooming out a little, the rest of Nintendo
as a company were hitting some rough waters. It was during the N64 era that Nintendo finally
lost their dominant place as the kings of the game consoles. Check out this chart I made of console sales
during the 5th generation. Now, the SEGA Saturn sold about 9 and half
million units. Nintendo 64 sold around 30 million units. But then, there’s the Playstation. At over 100 million units sold, it beat Nintendo
in a landslide! Especially embarrassing for Nintendo considering
the fact that Sony had never made a game console before! This was their first. And yet, they knocked Nintendo off their throne
with over 3 times the sales of the N64. So, the only thing Nintendo could do was compete. Playstation had better graphics? Well, Nintendo’s next console would have
even better ones! N64 cartridges couldn’t store as much data
as their competitors? Well, their next console would use discs,
then. Just. Like. Playstation. This is how the GameCube was born. Essentially, they wanted to out-Sony Sony
themselves. And, in some ways, they succeeded. The GameCube was arguably the most powerful
of its console generation, compared to the PS2 and Xbox. But while this tug of war, this competition
for power was going on, Shigeru Miyamoto was worried. “If Nintendo's games fail to stand out as
games,” he says, “then it shows that the creation process is for nothing, which made
me very sad. That was especially obvious during the GameCube
era;”. “The more we competed with new companies
entering the market, the more we started acting similar to them. But is being number one in that competition
the same as being number one with the general public? That’s the question we had.” And the answer to his question was a resounding
no. Look, I made another graph, just call me the
king of Excel, and it compares sales data for the 6th gen of consoles, of which the
GameCube is a part. Now, the SEGA DreamCast is bringing up the
rear at around 9 million units, which is not really a surprise - it killed SEGA’s console
line after all. But then, next in line is the GameCube, which
sold around 22 million units. Compared to the PlayStation 2, which sold
over 150 million units, that’s pretty dreadful. And look at this - Nintendo were even beaten
by the Xbox - by Microsoft, who had never made a games console before. History had repeated itself. Nintendo were beaten by another newcomer. Their strategy had failed, big time. As for the games, well, there are certainly
some memorable classics, like Super Smash Bros Melee and Luigi’s Mansion. But I think it’s telling that the system’s
big budget Mario game, Super Mario Sunshine, shows clear signs of being rushed to market
before it was ready. “Entertainment is something that you have
to look at the world with a very wide eye as you create it.” says Shigeru Miyamoto, “I always thought
that, but there were a few years where I was unable to get off other people's trends. It was a dilemma in my mind.” Those years, in case you couldn't tell, were
the GameCube era! So, that’s what made the GameCube a failure
in Shigeru Miyamoto’s mind. It wasn’t the poor sales, or the fact that
they were beaten by Microsoft. It was the fact that rather than setting the
trends, Nintendo were trailing behind, trying to copy them. That went for the system and for the games
too. “Nintendo titles were hardly even discussed
by the general public back then,” Miyamoto commented. ...Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario,
acknowledged that no-one was talking about their games! Nintendo needed to go back to innovating,
he felt, not creating games for an increasingly small group of hardcore fans. So, they decided to take a complete 180. Look at everything they were doing, and do
the opposite! “We thought about starting over from scratch
and aiming for games that can be played by people who don't play games," Miyamoto notes. "We did some research, and the result was
the Classic NES series.” Now, the classic NES series is essentially
when in the early 2000s, Nintendo ported a bunch of old NES games onto the Game Boy Advance. The games were cheaper than usual too, and
this strategy paid off. For people who found modern games too complex,
these simpler retro games cut away all of the distractions, and extra complications,
leaving just the fun at its simplest. But what about sales figures? Well, here’s a list of the best selling
Game Boy Advance games. And in 13th place is NES Classics Series:
Super Mario Bros! It sold 2 million, 2 hundred and 70 thousand
copies. Keep in mind, this is Super Mario Brothers
we’re talking about, it was already available on tons of consoles. And yet, it managed to rack up over 2 million
sales. Plus, check out what happens if I highlight
all the ports and remakes of old Mario games. That’s like half the list! All of these were best selling Game Boy Advance
games. So, when Nintendo stopped trying to compete
for the newest most powerful thing, they succeeded. And so, Shigeru Miyamoto took this as a sign
to go all out... no limits, no holding back! “We didn't want a new game system, but a
product that would make the entire world go crazy. And so Yamauchi said 'two screens.” Now, for a number of reasons, designing a
handheld console with 2 screens is madness. I mean, we’re used to the idea now, but
people in 2005 and 6 looking at this would be very confused... And Nintendo knew this was a bizarre move. “Doing that would make the system larger
and essentially double the price," Miyamoto says. "And yet we thought that it'd be a new surprise
for the general public, that it wouldn't be a bad way to attract the interest of a wide
band of people. So we went through some trial-and-error work
which ultimately connected to the touch pen, something I had wanted to have for a while. I didn't think two screens was enough to make
the DS a success, but the touch pen is what puts it all together, both in terms of cost
and design. That's what helps make it seem fascinating
to people.” And, well, 154 million units later, I think
that Miyamoto and Yamauchi and the entire team at Nintendo were right. Giving up on competing with their competitors
was the right strategy, at least in terms of sales, and I think in terms of fun as well. So, I personally wouldn’t say the GameCube
was a failure. It didn’t sell brilliantly, but we got some
great games. However, Shigeru Miyamoto’s dissatisfaction
wasn’t with the device itself. It did the things it was designed to do. He just didn’t like those things. And this dislike, this sadness, helped push
Nintendo into some of its best and most creative moments. The DS, the Wii and the Switch all owe their
success in some small way, to the regret that was the GameCube. If you found this interesting, you can subscribe
to this channel for more videos like this every week. Unless I get ill. Then I will lie down and take some Calpol. But as long as that doesn’t happen… then
expect a new video! See you next week!
