Zelda Cube kept out of shops

By Tom Bramwell Published 11 October, 2006

Japanese must buy online.

Nintendo will limit sales of the Cube Twilight Princess to its online store in Japan, the platform holder said today at a conference in Japan. Japan Japan Japan.

On the plus side, reports from the retail briefing did give us some more idea of the situation regarding accessory pricing and Virtual Console game availability.

On the latter point, next spring Virtual Console will start to play host to "Compact Software", Wii games delivered online at lower prices than their boxed counterparts - something Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has hinted at in the past.

Nintendo also said that by the end of the year 30 classic games would be available across the Nintendo platforms - NES, SNES and N64 - with 30 more from the Megadrive and PC Engine stables.

The pricing for the latter has yet to be established, but ought to be in line with the Nintendo-format retro titles, which will cost 800 Wii points for NES, 1000 for SNES and 2000 for N64. You can read about how points translate to pounds elsewhere.

The company added that in addition to composite, s-video, component and Japanese-only D-terminal audio/visual cables, punters would be able to buy a 512MB SD memory card for 3800 yen (GBP 17 / EUR 25) when the console launches in the Far East on 2nd December, with network adapters for online play and downloads going for 2800 yen (GBP 12 / EUR 18). Nintendo Wii will work with the DS' USB Internet dongle though, for those who have that.

Other details to come out of the conference include news of a special "Health Pack" for Wii - with Shigeru Miyamoto claiming he'd like to get the family exercising together - and a new DS recipe collection game, due out on 7th December with Wi-Fi Connection support, for which the company is also planning a magnet stand, allowing you to slap your handheld on the surface of the fridge when you're not pouring over recipes. Bizarre.

Look out for pictures of that on the Internet. And boss, don't look out for references to it on our December expense sheets. [Whistles]

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (62) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Pac #1 5 years ago

    "Nintendo will limit sales of the Cube Twilight Princess to its online store in Japan, the platform holder said today at a conference in Japan."

    Why?
    Edited by 1 at 11/10/06 @ 16:01

  • lambtron #2 5 years ago

    Try to make people buy the Wii I guess.

    Maybe to reduce overheads on the cube version too.

  • Wrestlevania #3 5 years ago

    /me crosses everything and hopes for Gunstar Heroes

  • BraveArse #4 5 years ago

    "network adapters for online play"?

    Isn't it online to begin with?

    /is confused

  • Steroyd #5 5 years ago

    I swear if Nintendo pull that type of stunt over in Europe with Zelda, i'm purging my house of Nintendo Products period.

    I'm pissed enough that i had to wait after the delay and then the wii version of Zelda gets higher priority and launches a month before the gamecube version (Why?) but only available online would royally piss me off.

  • Pac #6 5 years ago

    @Lambtron - if it's just about trying to sell the Wii, then why release the Cube version at all.

    Nintendo will still have to fork out for the replication, packaging etc for the Cube version, why not distribute it to stores?

  • mad_caddy #7 5 years ago

    @BraveArse

    I think the adapter is for a wired connection, I believe the Wii can work wirelessly

  • rinoaMW #8 5 years ago

    I hope Nintendo Europe don't follow suit for the Cube release...

  • HansGr00ber #9 5 years ago

    £17 for a 512MB SD card? No thanks. Presumably any old SD card will work? Say for example a 512MB card for £3 from Amazon?

  • CallousB #10 5 years ago

    "I'm pissed enough that i had to wait after the delay and then the wii version of Zelda gets higher priority and launches a month before the gamecube version (Why?) but only available online would royally piss me off. "

    Well it's even more likely to be online only in the UK..cube stuff is scarce these days so I doubt they will bother to release it in stores. Most will have no section to put it in.

  • MadMirko #11 5 years ago

    mad_caddy is correct.

    BTW, the "compact software" stuff sounds great. But only if they get the copy protection right. How often have you heard people say "I would buy it if it were cheaper"? I think so quite often, and I'll gladly not-buy the usual reduced quality European version of packaging and manuals.

  • GrandpaUlrira #12 5 years ago

    I suspect that Japenese Twilight Princess will be going for crazy prices on eBay in a few years, depending on how many they sell online of course.

  • Steroyd #13 5 years ago

    £17 for a 512MB SD card? No thanks. Presumably any old SD card will work? Say for example a 512MB card for £3 from Amazon?

    I'm not so sure Nintendo might be controlling with outside peripherals and only SD flash cards with a particular Nintendo Stamp will work with the Wii.

    With this latest stunt anything can happen.

    Well it's even more likely to be online only in the UK..cube stuff is scarce these days so I doubt they will bother to release it in stores. Most will have no section to put it in.

    I hope not my local GAME store occasionally puts the Gamecube back on the shelves when something launches for it then goes back into the retail abyss.

    Although that happened months ago don't know if they're still keeping that policy. :(

  • AcidSnake #14 5 years ago

    Maybe it's not to confuse consumers?
    Having 2 boxes of the same size both saying:
    'The Legend Of Zelda: The Twilight Princess'

    Could be confusing to the general public which the wii is aiming at...

  • rinoaMW #15 5 years ago

    But the article said;

    "Nintendo will limit sales of the Cube Twilight Princess to its online store in Japan"

    thats gonna affect online companies like amazon and play as well, who have (probably) already taken 1000s of preorders already. Does Nintendo Europe even have an online store?

    Oh, and you can still get CUBE games from lots of places - well you can where i live. (like GAME, GAMESTATION and Woolies)

  • afray #16 5 years ago

    So the Rev works wirelessly out of the box but needs an adapter to physically plug into an ethernet router?

  • Cyclone #17 5 years ago

    I doubt it has anything to do with making sure the customers aren't confused. It's about selling the Wii. It's a very shitty thing to do to customers who have supported the GC for years.

  • evildonut #18 5 years ago

    "Zelda Cube kept out of shops"
    "Nintendo will limit sales of the Cube Twilight Princess to its online store in Japan, the platform holder said today at a conference in Japan."

    Yeah, neither of those two sentences make any sense. "Cube Twilight Princess"?

    I'm assuming Tom means "the GameCube version of Twilight Princess"...

  • playgen #19 5 years ago

    This is just typical of the poor support nintendo have been giving gamecube for years. I wonder if they will give up on the Wii just as quickly as they did on the cube if its not an instant success.

    Im suprised they didnt cancel zelda for cube altogether like the other games that were due out, i so wanted that paper mario platform game on cube dammit!

  • scoobii #20 5 years ago

    Boggles me why they'd wanna do that. I'm gettin the cube version simple because I will be playing this till late and waving tired arms about at 3am does not appeal.

    Just glad thats not happenin in UK :)
    Edited by 1 at 11/10/06 @ 16:44

  • Penguinzoot #21 5 years ago

    Just glad thats not happenin in UK :)

    Thats not what the article said. The article reads:

    "Nintendo will limit sales of the Cube Twilight Princess to its online store in Japan"

    Which to me means that the Gamecube version will only be available in the online store, and then only in Japan.

    Was planning to get it for the Wii anyway.

  • numptyboymatt #22 5 years ago

    See, I just read it as meaning that this is what is happening in Japan, could be an entirely different kettle of fish over here.... Will just have to wait and see what happens, innit.

  • AssassiN Verified Owner/Editor, Computers N Stuff #23 5 years ago

    Knowing Nintendo Europe we probably won't get the Cube version of Twilight Princess at all....in fact the Ninty Europe press site STILL doesn't list Twilight Princess for Cube or Wii so i hold no hope of it showing up on Cube anyway.

  • smoison #24 5 years ago

    Wow, what a shit thing to do...

    I already find it harsh that Nin won't release the cube version even A DAY before the wii comes out.

    Anyone who thinks Nintendo is in any way NICER then any other company just needs to do a little researche to find shit like this...

  • scoobii #25 5 years ago

    I was under the assumption both versions were coming out on the same day. Something I missed while away from EG for a day?

  • Carrybagma #26 5 years ago

    Nintendo is rubbish.

  • chupachups #27 5 years ago

    "So the Rev works wirelessly out of the box but needs an adapter to physically plug into an ethernet router? "

    No, it needs a wi-fi router rather than just an ethernet one.


    "I'm not so sure Nintendo might be controlling with outside peripherals and only SD flash cards with a particular Nintendo Stamp will work with the Wii. "

    They can't do that, if they use the SD name for their flash cards then they have to accept all SD cards.

    But it seems a safe bet that many game shops will tell unwary customers "oh yeah you have to use Nintendo brand SD cards" while rubbing their hands at being able to sell a blank 512 card for £20.
    Edited by 2 at 11/10/06 @ 18:11

  • scoobii #28 5 years ago

    gits

  • JediMasterMalik #29 5 years ago

    It's good to see Nintendo still supporting the GC after all this time...oh.

  • Kazzahdrane #30 5 years ago

    Just to correct:

    The Wii works with a wi-fi broadband router out of the box, but to connect it to your wired connection with an ethernet cable you'll need the network adaptor.

    It's basically the other way round from the Xbox 360, which works wired out-of-the-box but requires a seperate adaptor for wireless internet access.

  • Hughes. #31 5 years ago

    The promise of TP is the only reason I still have a Cube, I hope they aren't planning on pissing around like this for the Euro release, whenever that turns out to be. That said, it's bloody hard to find new GC content in the high street these days, but this idea baffles me.

  • MadMirko #32 5 years ago

    For the life of me I can't figure out why I would want Zelda on the GC when I could play it on Wii.

    I guess they let the strange few order it so GC-but-not-Wii-fans are not left without support and a warm fuzzy feeling. That's nice of them, but I don't give a rat's ass.

  • Fuser #33 5 years ago

    Well you'd want the Cube version instead of the Wii if you didnt want to fork out £200 just for the one game.......

    As someone else said, I only kept my Cube ready for TP..

  • Hughes. #34 5 years ago

    Well, I already have a GC, so an additional cost of £180 to play a GC game when I have no idea how well all the Wiimote stuff will be implemented would be a nice option. Especially as the game has been touted as a future GC release for the last 2 years, if memory serves me correctly.

  • dunnster #35 5 years ago

    Hold on,

    2000 points for a N64 game that works out at £14 does it not? not the 1000 points that was muted before, I smell a shaft taking place.............
    Edited by 1 at 11/10/06 @ 20:42

  • MadMirko #36 5 years ago

    Ok, you maybe don't want / can't afford a Wii but still want to play Zelda TtP. Fair enough, then it's the GC version for you. The fact the Japanese must buy online (yes, I stole that from the article subtitle) somehow puts you in doubt if the GC version will be available to you at all? Because NoE does not have an online store?

    That does not make any sense, they need to localize TtP anyway, because they sure as hell will publish the Wii version. Aside from progressive scan and a higher resolution and the Wii control scheme the versions are said to be identical, so what reason could Nintendo have to NOT publish the GC game in Europe?

  • captain-future #37 5 years ago

    Nintendo angers me. Hope they don't do that here.

    I'm going to get the GC version anyway.

  • Bates #38 5 years ago

    There, absolutely NO reason not to buy a Wii now!

  • Sorb #39 5 years ago

    GC version +1

  • admir #40 5 years ago

    assholes bigger then sony or MS

  • Markusdragon #41 5 years ago

    So this whole 'nintendo are doing this all wrong' outrage... it hasn't noticed that if you let the high street stores stock it, you'd never get it because they don't sell new Gamecube games yet?

  • Matsuo #42 5 years ago

    Well, the DS browser was online-only in Japan, but still made it into the stores in Europe.

    It's just that buying in Japan is way more mainstream than in Europe. So fret not!

  • NegativeZero #43 5 years ago

    What they don't tell you is that they're going to be giving PAL players a thorough shafting. It wouldn't be Nintendo otherwise.

  • soanso #44 5 years ago

    I'm not too happy about having to buy a new console if I want to play Zelda.
    I mean it's a gamecube game with added funky controls.
    For everything else on Wii I'm happy to fork out the cash top lay because it's new software written for that system
    but not Zelda!

    I think it's very likely that it may not get a release at all in europe.

  • MadMirko #45 5 years ago

    Huh? And why would that be?

  • MadMirko #46 5 years ago

    Heh. Just ran across a Joystiq article linking to a Cube3d article, which both CONFIRM RETAIL AVAILABILITY OF GC ZELDA IN EUROPE!

    Here is the Cube3d article.

    Here is the Joystiq article.

    Funny thing, this is "news" from September. :)

  • mkreku #47 5 years ago

    Oh, I remember one of those japanese Nintendo dudes promising that Twilight Princess would definitely come out for the Cube and not wait for the Wii release. I have a friend who owns a Gamecube and he's followed the delays of Twilight Princess for a very long time. Nintendo are liars. They promised it for Gamecube, they promised it wouldn't have nothing to do with the Wii. Then they promised that they only added a few controller functionalities for the Wii. Now it seems it's practically a full-blown Wii title and all those with Gamecubes who've patiently been waiting since forever gets nothing. I bet, in the end it won't even make it to the Gamecube at all.

  • Triggerhappytel #48 5 years ago

    I'm very pissed off with Nintendo for the way it's handled Cube Twilight Princess. The game has clearly been finished for months, but they've held it back for the fucking Wii launch. And now we hear that in Japan they're not even hardly backing the Cube version?! There are some of us who still buy & play current-gen games y'know.

    Honestly, it seems Sony are the only ones who aren't going to totally neglect this generation once the next is launched.

  • scoobii #49 5 years ago

    Still tryna work out at what point Nintendo said they might not release GC TP in Europe. Thought even a hint at that would have made huge news, I mean its the reason me and quite a few people I know have held on to the cube.

  • some1 #50 5 years ago

    why the b*llocks are you guys complaining about its release in a country at the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD.

    Over here in Japan, cube is unsupported by RETAILERS, no one wants it. It makes perfect sense for Nintendo to sell it online since retailers wont STOCK it anyway.

    And if youre just complaining about it being held back for the Wii, suck it up, Nintendo are building a new boat and theyre not wasting wood on the one sinking because patching it up wont stop it going down

  • Penguinzoot #51 5 years ago

    MadMirko - generally the news from October trumps the news from September ;-)

    I guess its just not clear at the moment what Nintendo are gonna do with cube TP. Hopefully it will all become clearer soon.

  • Blerk #52 5 years ago

    Blimey, do we hate Nintendo again now? I can't keep up.

    Anyway, balance restored! Hurrah! ;-)

  • BartonFink #53 5 years ago

    Must be the old age Blerko I am finding it hard to keep up with this too.

  • MadMirko #54 5 years ago

    The only thing that is not clear is how people come to think GC Zelda won't be released in Europe. (Not that I care, it's the Wii version for me). Just wondering, but the best guess is Sony fanboys trying to divert attention. ;)

  • Kikimaru #55 5 years ago

    "800 Wii points for NES, 1000 for SNES and 2000 for N64"
    WTF?

    The linked article says 500, 800, 1000.
    Since when are we being asked to fork out so much extra?

  • playgen #56 5 years ago

    @ MadMirko

    People think Nintendo could cancel the cube version of zelda because they have already cancelled all their other upcoming cube games like:

    Super Paper Mario, Kirby, DK Bongo Blast, Stage Debut

    It wouldnt be suprising at all for them to cancel zelda, they did this sort of thing last time around with n64. If they have no intention of releasing the games for a dying platform, at least be honest about it, rather than promising releases so their customers stay loyal.

  • smelly #57 5 years ago

    Oh come on! You can hardly blame them!

    The cube is dead, next to no-one bought one! In fact even the xbox sold slightly more than the cube worldwide!!!

    Why waste money putting cube games into stores when no-one owns one?

    How many 1st party xbox games did you see after the 360's launch?

    As for zelda, they've stated time and again that it WILL get a euro cube launch. But I guess that because most shops arent stocking cube games any more (game, etc) that over here it'll be online sales too!

    Where it says it wont get a euro launch is beyond me! Maybe they're confusing zelda with the ps3? :-)

  • playgen #58 5 years ago

    And i seem to remember Nintendo saying a short time ago they would be supporting cube even after wii's release, just as ps1 after ps2. That was a loiad of rubbbish wasnt it. Sony deserves credit for supporting their systems for a long time after new ones are released, not everyone can afford the latest kit.

  • MadMirko #59 5 years ago

    Well, Nintendo "supported" the GBA long after the DS was released. What's going to happen with the Cube I don't know, but that "support" you speak of is usually 3rd parties releasing games. That's not a Sony / Nintendo fault / virtue, just something that comes and goes naturally with the market.

  • soanso #60 5 years ago

    @MadMirko

    why do I think it won't come out.
    Nintendo has done this before. Promised things to come out over here and then at the last minute changed it's mind.
    Remember also that they stated very clearly that Zelda:TP on the Wiii would ont make any special use of the controller.
    5 Minutes later...

    Zelda:TP is already a title with a long history of broken promises or changes of heart and direction so another one is not going to surprise me.

  • MadMirko #61 5 years ago

    :) Very dramatic.

    You are right, NOE are not going to set up an online store for Zelda. They didn't set one up for Opera (remember, that's only sold online in the Nintendo store in Japan).

    I bought Opera, which is infinitely less popular than Zelda, in a retail store in Europe. As you can see even here in this comments thread, Zelda GC will be a big hit and bring Nintendo lots of money.

    Granted, they are very successful right now, they practically print their own money. But if you can count on something then it's the will of companies to earn MORE money. So, if the communists didn't take over Nintendo, they will take your money, don't you worry.
    Edited by 1 at 12/10/06 @ 16:18

  • MadMirko #62 5 years ago

    Herod: I got the point, but my answer still stands. As long as the market is there people will produce games. There is not much of a market for GC, but STILL Nintendo supports the machine, and 3rd parties do as well:

    Here is a list of upcoming titles for the GC from amazon.de:

    17 Oktober 2006
    Die Sims 2 - Haustiere

    24 Oktober 2006
    The Legend of Spyro - A New Beginning
    Splinter Cell - Double Agent

    31 Oktober 2006
    Need for Speed Carbon
    Spongebob Schwammkopf: Kreatur aus der krossen Krabbe
    Jagdfieber

    7 November 2006
    Bionicle Heroes

    That's releases every week. Releases from the recent past (just of the top of my head) included Chibi Robo, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Lego Star Wars II.

    That's not exactly jumping the ship, isn't it? Remember Sega and the Dreamcast or the Game Gear, that's how you abandon a console.

    Granted Sony couldn't even abandon the PS2 if they wanted, they can't produce the PS3 in substantial amounts yet and the PS2 is a very widely spread console. My point here is, you can't point to Sony right now and single them out as a shining example: Their situation is radically different.



  • HenryMancini #63 5 years ago

    Strange that while there's some genuinely interesting and exciting news here (the "Compact Software" - if you think retail despise Nintendo now, let's see what _that_ does to their relationship!)... the main thing I want to comment on is the continuing use of the word "muted" instead of "mooted"

    People, please. It's simple. It's a moot point, not a mute point. It's mooted, not muted. Muted would mean that someone turned your volume off. OK? That one's really annoying me, as there's a total prick at work who continually gets this wrong. And needs to be slapped.

    Don't get all the talk of wired/wireless adapters - Tom, please be a dear and go re-read the sources you skanked this from and clarify that will you?