Miyamoto: GameCube's Poor Sales Led to Wii and DS Development

Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that Nintendo's development of the successful Wii and Nintendo DS consoles was a direct response to the GameCube's disappointing sales performance.

Miyamoto stated that at the time, Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata believed the GameCube's underperformance was due to a generally negative public perception of video games. Consequently, the subsequent home console and handheld were tasked with attracting a broader, non-traditional gaming audience.

In an interview with Japanese publication Famitsu, Miyamoto explained that while the GameCube was feature-rich, easy for developers, and competitively priced, its market reception fell short of expectations. He noted that many consumers bought competing consoles for features like DVD playback, whereas GameCube buyers were almost exclusively gamers.

The strategy proved successful, with the Wii becoming Nintendo's best-selling home console until surpassed by the Switch, and the DS remaining the best-selling dedicated handheld console globally. The Switch has since become Nintendo's highest-selling console overall.