We interview Nintendo of America's Beth Llewelyn for more insight into the recent GameCube sales.
November 29, 2001
Yesterday Nintendo issued a press release stating that GameCube is the fastest-selling videogame system ever. However without any solid sales data and vague numbers we decided to go straight to Nintendo to see if we could get a clearer picture of sales. Beth Llewelyn, Director of PR for Nintendo of America, commented on the situation providing a little more insight into the sales. The interview is as follows:
IGNcube: Nintendo is reporting that GameCube is the fastest selling system ever. Under what circumstances? Is that a week or the launch day?
Beth Lewelyn: "We're looking at it just in that launch period."
IGNcube: Did it sell better than the Sony PlayStation 2 on launch day?
Beth Lewelyn: To compare against Sony we're looking at TRST data and we pretty much looked at [Sony's] first week of sales. So, compared against that -- 515,000 may have been their shipment number -- but wasn't, from what we can tell with TRST, their sell-through number and that's what we're comparing.
IGNcube: So during the first-week you're saying you sold more GameCubes than PS2 did in that same launch period?
Beth Lewelyn: Yes.
IGNcube: You didn't give out any specific sales numbers, though. What are we looking at?
Beth Lewelyn: Around 510,000, a little over that, [for the first week].
IGNcube: Luigi's Mansion, the fastest selling launch title ever. Is that across all systems and not just Nintendo's?
Beth Lewelyn: We're looking at the numbers and certainly in recent history it would be across all platforms.
IGNcube: That's also based on TRST data?
Beth Lewelyn: Yes, our numbers comparatively against TRST.
IGNcube: Do you have actual numbers for how many units Luigi's Mansion sold?
Beth Lewelyn: I don't have the actual numbers, but I know it sold several hundred thousand.
IGNcube: What about Wave Race: Blue Storm?
Beth Lewelyn: I don't have the numbers, but it ranked third. [Editor's note: According to Nintendo's recent press release, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader was ranked second after Luigi's Mansion.]
Final Verdict
It seems that Nintendo is sticking with the declaration "Fastest Selling Console Ever...in a week." It remains to be seen what kind of sales the system saw on launch day. Indeed it must be close to Sony's launch day PS2 sales, but does it eclipse it? Hopefully we'll soon find out. Nintendo also notes that it doesn't have final sales data for the launch software just yet, which is why it hasn't released final numbers.
What about the Xbox sales, you say? It seems Microsoft is keeping clear of the public relations war for now. Early world suggests that Microsoft simply may have not had enough consoles on the market at launch to compete with Sony's and Nintendo's sales numbers. However, the console has also seen sell-out sales since release.
Whatever the truth may be, all three next-generation consoles are well on their way to making large footprints in the next-generation markets, and the real indicator of success will only be seen in the years to come.
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