GameCube

GameCube

The Nintendo GameCube (ニンテンドーゲームキューブ, Nintendō Gēmukyūbu?), officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in North America, is a video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia. It was the successor to the Nintendo 64. As part of the sixth generation of gaming, the Nintendo GameCube competed with the Sega Dreamcast (which ceased production before the GameCube launched), Sony's PlayStation 2, and Microsoft's Xbox.

The Nintendo GameCube was the first Nintendo home console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium, after several aborted projects from Nintendo and its partners to utilize optical-based storage media. In contrast with the GameCube's contemporary competitors, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the GameCube uses miniDVD-based discs instead of full-size DVDs. Partially as a result of this, it does not have the DVD-Video playback functionality of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox systems, nor the audio CD playback ability of other consoles that use full-size optical discs. Panasonic eventually released a DVD player hybrid of the console exclusively in Japan, the Panasonic Q.

In addition, the GameCube introduced a variety of connectivity options to Nintendo consoles, and was the first Nintendo console outside Japan to support online play officially, via the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter and Modem Adapter (sold separately). However, its online service only had four games which supported it and was not heavily promoted; by comparison, Xbox Live, PS2 Online, and SegaNet/Dreamarena were more actively involved in the online competition. The GameCube also allowed for connectivity to the Game Boy Advance to access exclusive features of certain games or to use the portable system as a controller for the Game Boy Player.

The successor to the Nintendo GameCube, the Wii, was released in November 2006. The GameCube sold approximately 21.74 million units worldwide.