GameCube Sunday

Nintendo's GameCube launched in the USA yesterday morning, with some 700,000 units available at retail. Plenty were snapped up as pre-orders, but the majority will be staring at gamers from store shelves for the princely sum of $199. 700,000 is more than double the number of Xboxes that shipped on Thursday of course, and if both companies' projections are on the money, Nintendo will have more units all the way up to Christmas. Whether they will all ship is another matter. There was a definite clamour to get hold of GameCube in several of the largest US cities, but with the consoles in bountiful supply, a lot of people were happy to pick one up on Sunday morning or during the day. Peculiarly, the games have been available for a week or more now, as the GameBoy Advance games were. We have a copy of Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader here to show for it. It works a treat on our Japanese / US modded GameCube! We predict Rogue Leader will be one of the biggest earners at launch, with Luigi's Mansion and co. quite a way behind. GameCube launches with plenty of software titles, including exclusives like Rogue Leader, Luigi's Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm, along with meatier titles like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. Related Feature - Hip to be Cube!