Quote Originally Posted by Shadow8017
name one exceptional game for the gamecube that wasn't developed by nintendo themselves
Resident Evil? Viewtiful Joe? Soul Calibur 2? Eternal Darkness? Alien Homonid? Baten Kaitos? Beyond Good & Evil? Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO? Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals? Anything with the word "James Bond" in it? Anything with the word "Bomberman" in it? Starfox Assault? Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes? Dude, have you even SEEN a Gamecube?

and for that reason it took a 3rd place seat.
No it was for several reasons. Mainly it was because the Playstation caused Nintendo to fall so far behind in the market (and the developer unfriendly N64 certainly didn't help things) that people were soured to Nintendo from the getgo. The new school of gamers whose first console was a Playstation had decreed that anything made by Nintendo was inherently "ghey". It probably didn't help that the original Gamecube model was purple. There were some grumblings about the Gamecube's lack of multimedia functions (you couldn't use it as a CD or DVD player), lack of 3rd party support, and complete lack of a killer app (Not that the PS2 had any at the time of its launch. Fantavision? Pffft.). People also had complaints about the controller (as you can still see on this forum). However, one BIG reason that people don't tend to notice as much has to do with corporate reasons. Compared to Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo is a small fry. Sony and Microsoft were huge corporate giants long before either of them ever dreamed of making a game console. They OWN ENTIRE FACTORIES WHERE THE CHIPSETS ARE CAST. If you were to TAKE MICROSOFT'S ENTIRE WAREHOUSE FULL OF XBOX360S AND BLOW IT UP they WOULDN'T EVEN BAT AN EYE. These are corporate MEGA GIANTS who can afford to loose more money EVERY DAY than most of us will EVER SEE IN OUR ENTIRE LIVES. They could BUY OUT Nintendo several times over with no noticeable financial loss. Because of this, they can afford to make crazy new technology at a whim. Notice how Nintendo's entire console is outsourced to other companies? Yeah, there's a reason for that, and it hits them right in the pocketbook.

Didn't basically the same technology exist 15+ years ago when we were playing duck hunt on the nes?
No.

I think for true seasoned gamers, the real revolution in gaming right now is online gaming in home consoles, and sony and microsoft seem to understand this better.
I think true seasoned gamers are smacking their foreheads at how many games are starting to include online support. The REAL revolution will come when people start to realize there's a lot more to gaming than Halo and GTA.