Just over five years after releasing the Nintendo 64, and three days after Microsoft entered the home game console business, Nintendo released the GameCube in North America on November 18, 2001. Although it was more powerful than the PlayStation 2, released a year earlier, and priced at just $199.99, for the second generation in a row Nintendo didn’t enjoy anywhere near the level of success Sony did.
Nintendo wasn’t able to tout the GameCube as the most powerful system of the generation due to the Xbox’s presence. It did have an edge over the PS2 horsepower-wise, and Nintendo finally left cartridges behind for its home consoles. But rather than opt to use DVDs like Microsoft and Sony, it opted for a proprietary optical disc format smaller than DVDs both in physical size and storage space. The system itself was incapable of playing DVDs — a feature that did wonders for the success of the PS2 — although Japan did get the Panasonic Q system that remedied that particular problem for its small number of owners.
