Nintendo Chose 3.15-Inch GameCube Discs to Cut $20 Fees and Deter Piracy
Updated
Updated · Engadget · Aug 16
Nintendo Chose 3.15-Inch GameCube Discs to Cut $20 Fees and Deter Piracy
2 articles · Updated · Engadget · Aug 16
Summary
Nintendo’s proprietary GameCube miniDVDs measured 3.15 inches and held just under 1.5GB, making them unreadable by standard DVD drives and harder to pirate in the early 2000s.
That format also helped Nintendo avoid about $20 in DVD Forum royalties per console and use a smaller optical drive, supporting the GameCube’s $200 launch price versus $300 for the PS2 and Xbox.
Smaller discs brought user benefits too: Nintendo says the shorter read distance helped loading times, while the compact drive contributed to a lighter 5.7-pound console compared with the original Xbox’s 8.8 pounds.
The trade-off likely hurt sales because the GameCube could not play DVD movies, unlike the PS2 and, with a $30 add-on, the Xbox; Nintendo’s console sold 21.74 million units versus 24 million for Xbox and 160 million for PS2.