Random: 'Minecraft' On GameCube Boasts A Better Render Distance Than Switch

Hardware wise, Gamecube was a pretty powerful console. Just hampered by alot of questionable choices on Nintendo's end.

@DripDropCop146 Imagine all the GameCubes would have had DVD video playback with only a little higher price.

@DripDropCop146 Exactly. A lot of people might not know that it was on par with or more powerful than its contemporaries at the time, with only the original Xbox possibly being even more powerful. But come the Wii era, Nintendo stopped caring as much about power under the hood (instead focusing on some sort of gameplay gimmick), while Sony and Microsoft started racing each other to push the limits as to what their hardware is capable of.

We've seen this strategy pay off to some degree for Nintendo, with the Wii and its motion controls selling over 101 million units, the DS and its dual screen setup selling over 154 million units, and the Switch and its ability to switch between TV, tabletop, and handheld mode selling over 143 million consoles and counting.

It didn't always pay off, though, as the Wii U with their tablet controller standing as one of their worst-selling standalone consoles since the Virtual Boy (I don't count the Game Boy Micro, as that was just a hardware update to the Game Boy Advance; nor do I count the NES and SNES Classic Editions, as those are basically glorified emulators).

It would be nice to see the successor to the Switch be even more powerful, but still come up with a quirky, fun way to play games. But Nintendo cannot fall into the same trap that they did with the Wii U, otherwise the successor to the Switch will flop just as hard. They need to aggressively market the system as its own thing, separate from the original Switch (assuming they keep the Switch name), and have a killer library of games right out of the gate (not just first and second-party, but also third-party and indie games).

@DripDropCop146 It's also interesting to note that while PlayStation and Xbox have sold quite well amongst hardcore gamers, the strategy of focusing on power and graphics has not always paid off.

We're beginning to see that with this current generation, with the Xbox Series X/S selling around as many units as the GameCube did (roughly 21 million) as of right now, and the PS5 selling only about 61 million units so far (the worst for a PlayStation home console; only the Vita sold worse, between 10 to 15 million units sold).

While the PS5's numbers are still impressive in their own right, when compared to other PlayStation consoles, the difference is huge. The PSP sold between 80 and 82 million, the PS3 sold over 87 million, and PS4 has sold over 117 million and counting, and the PS2 sold between 155 million and 160 million.

Some have argued that this is because of the pandemic-related supply chain issues, or that there are only about a dozen or so exclusives for the system (with much of their library also being found on Xbox, PC, and Switch).

But the way I see it, if Microsoft and Sony can't come up with an impressive library of games and fun new ways to play, their sales will inevitably drop, and we'll probably be more likely to see them drop out of the console market before Nintendo ever does.

As it is, Sony was reported to be over $31 billion in debt earlier this year, to the point where they didn't even crack the Top 300 richest companies in Japan, while Nintendo was #1, with over $11 billion in cash and cash equivalents and no debt to their name. At this rate, I don't think even the PlayStation can save Sony.

@AstroTheGamosian, kind of disingenuous to compare mid life PS5 sales to to EOL sales of all the other PS consoles.

No way it's touching PS2, and PS4 is debatable, but it's certainly going to eclipse both PSP & PS3 pretty easily by EOL. IIRC, it's sales are actually comparable (if not ahead) of where PS4 was at the same point in it's life.

I'm truly shocked by how bad the switch Minecraft port is. Pocket edition runs significantly better.

@Max_the_German ...and how many more worn out lenses there would have been because of the DVD feature lol

For me N64 and NGC are two of the best consoles ever made, they had a spectacular hardware for their time, watching games like Turok 2 or Rogue Squadron II in those years was crazy.

I have a physical copy of Minecraft Bedrock Edition on Switch, more for preservation rather than quality. In addition to being able to play the version without updates, the Mario skins work offline. At no point did I believe that Microsoft/Mojang would care about making a 100% decent port, which is common in all their products. 😑

@AstroTheGamosian in my opinion the Wii U had one huge problem which far surpassed all others: Nintendo never made a proper Zelda or Mario game for it. It boggles the mind, really. No other company has the mindshare, the amount of die hard fans. They can release an underpowered gimmick based console with no initial third party support and I will still buy it for just those those two games alone. But they never did! I will never understand how they ever presented the Wii U as a real console without truly taking it seriously in that way.

@N64-ROX No proper Mario game? I agree with Zelda, since BOTW was the last game for the WiiU and Cross-Platform.

But Super Mario 3D World was no spin off game and highly praised at the time. And the WiiU also had MarioKart 8, one of the best MarioKarts of all time. And I would argue MarioKart is just as much of a System Seller as Zelda or Mario.

The WiiU failed because it was difficult to develop for and its main Gimmick never really clicked. And it didn’t have a good launch title. New Super Mario Bros. U is not the game to launch a console with.

And Nintendo Land (which I adore) would never be able to capture the same audience that Wii Sports did.

@TheStormGL well I guess in the end I can only speak for myself. To me, a real Mario game in a post SM64 world needs to be free roaming 3D, otherwise it's a spin off. I read the glowing reviews of 3D World back then in the same light as the Mario Wonder ones from last year. Fun for the faithful but a real Mario game is a generation defining experience. I happily bought 3D World when it was re-released on the Switch - a console which had already proved its worth a thousand times over by that point - but quickly found it painfully restrictive after the utter joy and generosity that was Oddysey. 3D World was top Nintendo quality but inarguably not Nintendo's "next greatest thing" from its A-team. It was a clear step down from what had come before; a clear stopgap to satisfy fans while the real project was still a long way away from completion. Similar to Echoes of Wisdom really. It looks cool and I can't wait for it, but regardless of what Nintendo says, anyone who claims that it is "the next mainline Zelda" after TOTK is willfully kidding themselves. It's an expansion to a remaster of a game boy game. Bring games like these on, I'm all for them! But they are the appetiser to the main course, and I don't visit a restaurant for the appetiser alone.

@N64-ROX Technically, they did release a proper Zelda for it, but it came at the very end of its lifespan and was also a launch title for the Switch. Over 31 million people bought the Switch version, and only about 1.7 million people bought the Wii U version. I personally have both versions.

@DripDropCop146 be careful we aren’t allowed to say that and hold Nintendo accountable.

Flood alert. Switch processing power critics are now salivating.