The Nintendo GameCube is 20 years old this year, and some lesser known stories from its history were revealed, including Nintendo's internal debates over how to
Speaking with VGC, Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo's former VP of marketing and corporate affairs, said she thought the purple color of the console "was not the best to start with," indicating that it was not masculine enough. She said:
“We actually suggested that the purple was not the best to start with and (Japan) said, ‘no, we’re going to use that.’ Then we pushed for black and silver, because I think in the US nobody had ever really done the purple color before. It wasn’t that you couldn’t bring out hardware that was a different color, it was just a very… ‘female’ looking color. It just didn’t feel masculine, I think. I remember us being very nervous at E3 that we were going to get bad press purely based on the color.”
Read More: Former Nintendo Programmer Reveals Footage Of Zelda Portals Demo
Nintendo of America Thought GameCube's Purple Color Was a Terrible Idea
Meanwhile, Nintendo of America’s former director of corporate communications Beth Llewelyn said giving players color choice was a bold tactic.
“This pre-dates Apple. Picking your color these days is like making a statement. But back then all the game systems were black… even white hadn’t really been done widely. Nintendo was never a technology story, but we were always combating what our competitors at Sony and Microsoft were doing from a PR perspective and having this purple box didn’t quite help there.”
The Nintendo GameCube was released in Japan and North America back in 200 and introduced some of the most renowned game franchises, such as Animal Crossing and bold new series such as Pikmin, though some may consider its stay on the market as a 'flop.' It's one of the worst-selling Nintendo consoles to date.
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