No More GameCube, Wii 2.0 On the Far Horizon
The little purple machine that could is no longer being manufactured. Hardware revisions are in store for the Nintendo Wii eventually. These announcements aren't terribly shocking, but they're still interesting admissions from Perin Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America. GameDaily has the interview, which also discusses Wii sales, the lull in games, new IPs, and some details on plans online. Don't worry, you won't have to buy a new Wii anytime soon. Kaplan is immediately talking about the planned Japanese version with DVD Playback capability, but does say 'Sure, absolutely' to the question of whether we'll eventually see hardware changes on the order of the DS/DS Lite.
Sony plan for the PS2 to carry on outselling the PS3 until at least 2009. The PS2 outsold both the PS3 and the XBox360 in January this year. So it's not necessarily obvious to stop making the old units as soon as the new one comes out. However in Nintendo's scenario where there isn't a huge price difference in the two consoles, it makes more sense to replace it entirely.
Anyone who wants a GameCube has been able to get one for £40 or so for a couple of years, and there will be a few knocking around even cheaper now people can play the games on the Wii.
There's still a few reasons for owning a real one - third party controllers (at least the one I had) don't work on the Wii, and the GameBoy player attachment won't fit it.
But they really couldn't have been making any money on new ones.
No More GameCube, Wii 2.0 On the Far Horizon
