>>712784593
>PS2 launched in 2000, basically had zero competition for all of 2000 and most of 2001; early PS2s' notorious failure rate basically irrelevant for lack of meaningful alternatives on top of being a DVD player
>Gamecube was the last of the 6th gen consoles to come out in the west
>Celda at Space World 2001 destroyed a lot of hype in spite of how much historical revisionism WWfags are desperately to ply
>no killer apps at launch besides Melee coming out a month after release, Mario Sunshine released to tepid reviews in spite of being Super Mario 64's sequel, Xbox at least could claim Halo
>Nintendo did not forsee the rise of shooters in spite of Goldeneye's enormous success, and GTA3 spurring open world sandbox trend, which left them ill-positioned to pivot
>incoherent and unfocused advertising until Reggie was brought on board
>outside of stuff like Pikmin or Metroid Prime, Nintendo was mostly complacent in a highly maneuverable industry that was rapidly learning the design philosophies it codified, this wasn't the 90s anymore when there was a massive powergap between Zelda and other action adventure titles, or Mario and other platformers

Yes, being saccharine and infantile didn't help in the era of Y2K and the edgy 00s. It's not a coincidence the Zelda announced after Wind Waker was the much darker Twilight Princess, which quickly became a best seller for the franchise and basically the face of Zelda as far as merchandising went, and that the next 3D Mario went to space and incorporated a bombastic orchestra, with even the producers talking about the design philosophy of "Mario isn't cute, Mario is cool."
Longterm, much like the Wii U which took the title of notorious Nintendo failure from it, the Gamecube was ultimately necessary growing pains for Nintendo, who made a lateral pivot into the Wii/DS years and were able to insulate themselves from the budget shocks that were killing publishers and developers during 7th gen. A