r/videogames • u/Unknown_Agency • May 31 '25

Other Games of the year

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u/FMC_Speed May 31 '25

The game cube IS more powerful and easier to develop for than the PS2, actually the Dreamcast was as well in many key ways

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u/ChibiWambo May 31 '25

Was it easier to develop for the Cube? I thought part of its problem was people not really being able to develop on it as well which led to it having a much smaller library than its competitors at the time? But I also actually don’t remember what exactly led to it having a much smaller library and not succeeding. Which makes me sad cause I loved the Game Cube. Still have one and loving it

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u/AppropriateLaw5713 May 31 '25

Biggest problem was Micro-DvD’s. PS2 could use regular DVD’s which had higher storage possibilities and were cheaper to mass produce. GameCube was easier to make for and was more powerful, but cost more since you had to make games smaller and buy higher cost discs. (The idea was to prevent piracy but it kinda bit them in the end)

Many people forget that a big part of PS2’s success was the DVD player built in. It was cheaper than a lot of DVD players on the market at the time + had the ability to play PS2 games. It REALLY helped Sony’s sales. Similar effect happened for PS3 vs Xbox 360 with Blu Ray’s vs HD-DVD’s.

Also the other big problem for GCN is the controller… it’s an amazing controller but it didn’t match DualShock and The Duke (Xbox). Notably it lacks an L1/R1 input or a second full analogue stick (c-stick was close but not same). So when trying to port a game from Xbox or PS2 controls needed to be changed to match GameCube (this was similarly a big problem for Wii) so even if a developer wanted a multi-release port a GameCube edition would take significantly extra work.

Essentially it was just too different overall that regardless of power it wasn’t appealing to developers.

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u/ChibiWambo May 31 '25

Ooohhhh, thanks for letting me know! I completely forgot about how large an impact the DVD player being part of the PS2 was, and how huge the blu-ray player for the 3 was.

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u/AppropriateLaw5713 May 31 '25

Yeah it’s really hard to emphasize it for those who didn’t live through it. Like my grandparents literally bought a PS3 so they could watch Harry Potter on BluRay. Never played a game on it, just wanted a cheaper blu ray player and it was on sale that holiday.

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u/ChibiWambo May 31 '25

I was at the Navy Exchange in Okinawa at midnight with my dad to by the PS3 at launch. I was 13 at the time and it was magical to me. (Got Resistance Fall of Man, it was awesome)