How powerful is the Gamecube?

[Rob2600]

The Xbox was overkill in hardware, so it costs a lot more, and Microsoft lost a ton on the consoles themselves. Rob, Xbox also had a DVD drive, the Gamecube did not. The DVD was a selling point, it was for me for sure. Xbox also had an internal network adapter, GC did not.

True, good points. The GameCube did have a DVD-like optical drive though. And wouldn't a standard, "off-the-shelf" DVD drive cost less than Nintendo's custom, proprietary optical drive?

Also, how much did a network adapter cost in 2001? Enough to account for the $145 difference in production costs (sans hard drive)? It still doesn't add up to me.


(Keep in mind, I had bought an ethernet card for my computer in 2000 for $15, retail. How much could it have cost Microsoft in 2001, in bulk? $5 each?)

By the way, in searching I came across this absurdity...
http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/ne...-mod-09280209/

What the...?