In 1998, they began to assume that Nintendo would launch its new console to market. Everything indicates that the company would continue using the cartridge as a storage medium for their games and it would be backward to the Nintendo 64. Nintendo console before presenting the press with the code name of “Project Dolphin”, but later the name was changed to Star Cube, whose intention was to regain the lead lost in the Sony Playstation.
Nintendo wanted to return to retake the lead in the market for video games, which was lost with the Nintendo 64. The market was already dominated by its rival Sony with its PlayStation console. Nintendo Seeking support from IBM, which commissioned the manufacture of the central processor of the console, which is based on a PowerPC processor.
Nintendo sought support from the company ArtX for the development of the graphic device, after which time it was acquired by ATI for this reason there is a ATI logo in the system, which was responsible for developing the GPU. This graphics processor exceeded that of the PlayStation 2, Dreamcast and ultimately could rival the graphics of the Xbox without any inconvenience.
In the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo aside the cartridge holder as a means to distribute their games, it is believed that the cartridge was the cause of the Nintendo 64 is behind its competitor Playstation. Nintendo opts for optical drives created for this purpose format GOD (acronym for “GameCube Optical Disc). Using DVD technology in a reader Matsushita (Panasonic in the U.S. and Europe), is in the form of optical disk capable of storing 1.5 GB of information. Also, the reader unit of the console can access the disk at a speed higher than a conventional DVD.
At first, the console would be launched worldwide in 2000, but Nintendo had in mind before enabling your console to connect to the Internet and made a change in plans. Technical data already on the table, but the real possibilities of the next generation console from Nintendo remained unknown. On August 24 2000 at 15:30 (time in Japan domestic), on the day before Nintendo SpaceWorld 2000, the “Big N” presents the design and peripherals Nintendo GameCube (finally scrap the name Star Cube) and some demonstrations which could see a huge leap from what his predecessor, the Nintendo 64 was able to offer. Therefore, this new machine promised to beat the previous generation of consoles. However, although they were not as successful as anticipated and was ranked third in sales among the consoles of their generation, with just 21.5 million units sold around the world.