Until Autumn of this year, Nintendo will be temporarily halting any further production of its GameCube system.
This is in response to building inventories of unsold GameCubes which have accumulated due to the GameCube's less
than stellar sales. The announcement was made at Nintendo's business strategy press conference in which the future
of the company's gaming line was discussed alongside vague promises of a new product to be announced this spring.
Since its launch in 2001, Nintendo has only managed to move 10 million GameCubes worldwide. This is in comparison
to the obvious frontrunner, Sony's PlayStation 2, which has sold just over 51 million units since its launch in 2000.
In an odd move for Nintendo, President Satoru Iwata actually admitted that Nintendo had made a stategic mistake with
the GameCube, as it didn't ensure a steady stream of interesting content to entice consumers. However, despite
the halt, Nintendo assured the public that this is no indication of a rollback in GameCube support and that it will
be resuming production sometime in Autumn to meet the expected holiday demand.
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