This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo GameCube's release in Japan in 2001. The console, which launched in Europe in May 2002, is now looked back on with reverence, despite being mocked at the time of its release.
The GameCube sold less than its competitors, the Xbox and PlayStation 2. It would have been remembered as Nintendo's biggest flop, excluding the 1995 Virtual Boy, if not for the Wii U console's failure in 2012, which led to Nintendo's first unprofitable periods in game-making history.
Nintendo's late president, Satoru Iwata, noted in 2004 that the strategy of creating complex games with advanced graphics was no longer effective. This realisation led Nintendo to pursue a different path with subsequent consoles like the touchscreen DS and motion-controlled Wii, which aimed to redefine the video game market.