Microsoft Inadvertently Paying for Gamecube Games? (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey Forner]

The irony of this is absolutely amazing.
This taken from the latest issue of NextGen magazine:

And [Microsoft] paid for the whole deal... We've been in the business for a few years, and we didn't do any deals like that. For better or worse, a $10 royalty plus the cost of their goods is about the same deal that all three companies are running on.

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-J.Fo
"Can I finish? Please! Can I finish? Okay, I'm finished."

 

[Aaron Copeland]

Yeah, that sounds bad at first...but after you think about it, it's not all that bad.
If MS hadn't done that, they would likely have fewer developers and fewer games....and Sony or Nintendo would likely have ended up with those same games anyway. MS had to get their foot in the door somehow. So even though Nintendo has possibly benefited from a cost standpoint, they really haven't gained any games or developers since they would have gone to Nintendo if MS hadn't done that anyway...and MS still gains the games. Plus, since they are being developed for the XBOX first, they will likely have these games for at least a couple of months before they appear on the Cube...in fact, it's likely MS made these developers sign an exclusivity contract for a certain period of time before porting is allowed (if they are smart they did this).
So in the end...Nintendo saves a few dollars (which MS can afford anyway) and MS gains a few games they wouldn't have had that can potentially help build their install base. Once (If) they can gain a strong install base they should no longer have to offer this sort of deal to developers to get them to make games for the system.
Aaron

 

[Dave F]

...and the GameCube gets a bunch of Xbox ports.
-Dave
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