Cube on sale for £39.99 in the UK

UK catalogue retailer Index has slashed the price of the GameCube by 50 per cent as part of a sale promotion, and is currently selling the console for £39.99 in high street stores - but it will not be dropping the console from its range, according to Nintendo.

Last year, a number of British retailers dropped the price of the GameCube dramatically in an effort to clear stocks of the console before dropping it from their ranges; however, sales of the system jumped significantly enough at the lower price-point to convince several chains to continue selling the hardware.

Nintendo later dropped the price of the Cube to £79.99, the promotional price which the retail chains had offered, leading to strong sales of the GameCube in the run up to Christmas - although sales declined rapidly once more in the new year.

While it seems unlikely that the Index sale precipitates a drop of that magnitude in the Cube's official price later this year, a Nintendo spokesperson was keen to emphasise that Index has shown no signs of dropping the Cube from its range.

"Index is currently running a big promotion on all its products, of which GameCube is one, offering up to 50 per cent discount," the company explained in an statement. "As far as we are aware, Index will continue to trade with Nintendo at certain times of the year."

Although it has had mixed fortunes across Europe, the Cube's performance in the UK has generally been disappointing for Nintendo - with the console lagging a long way behind the Xbox in terms of installed base and ongoing sales in the largest market in Europe. However, it has outperformed the Xbox in the smaller but still significant markets of France and Germany.