Nintendo in panic mode, film at 11

[vsp]

The Nintendo GameCube is... drumroll, please... not QUITE dead yet, but officially in the cancer ward as of this weekend.

Let us compare deals:

PS2: System at $199, retailers might toss in a $10 carrying case if you're lucky that week.

Xbox: System at $199, with two free pack-in games (Sega GT and Jet Set Radio Future; not bad, but not exactly top-tier titles either)

Cube at Best Buy: System at $149, with METROID PRIME (THE hot game right now for the system) or one of three other titles free with purchase

Cube at Circuit City: System at _$139_, with Metroid Prime or one of three other titles free with purchase

One-thirty-nine, sixty bucks below the competition, AND with a popular fifty-dollar game (one that most new Cube owners would've bought separately) thrown in as well. Yikes. Microsoft's pack-in deal was an act of desperation; this is move-some-hardware-before-we-throw-in-the-towel-and-stick-to-Game-Boy-development territory.

(Yes, yes, Zelda is coming, Zelda is coming. But the same people who swear that Zelda will be a massive system-seller and Zelda will revitalize the GameCube said the same thing about Metroid Prime.)

Further sign of doom: Sega of America just dropped all sports support for the Cube. "Ouch," I say. Not that I'm complaining too much -- massive Cube price drops are good for me, as it'll be that much sooner that I'll feel like buying one and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for cheap for my wife.