UK Cube sales up 400 per cent following price cut

Nintendo UK has jubilantly announced a four-fold increase in sales of the GameCube hardware in the two days following its recent price cut to £79, although even this major boost can't lift it past its home console rivals.

According to the company, sales of the Cube rose by 400 per cent in the first two days of the new price point, a fairly impressive achievement (you'd think) which is reminiscent of last week's stateside performance, where the Cube outsold the PS2 by 20 per cent and the Xbox by 145 per cent.

However, the reality is that Nintendo would have needed a lot more than 400 per cent to pull itself out of third place in the UK, with the console still being outsold significantly last week by the Xbox (around 33 per cent ahead according to some figures) and not even coming close to the PS2 - which outsold it by a ratio of at least 10:1 thanks to the introduction of a lower price and a new silver model.

The new price point is still a good move for Nintendo, as it improves the company's prospects this Christmas significantly. We can't really criticise the company's decision to apply such a positive spin to its sales figures, since this is after all exactly what we exhorted the company to do only last week following widespread criticism of the company's financial results - mostly due to misinterpretation of the figures. If Nintendo is to retain the confidence of the industry, it's just going to have to take on Microsoft at its own PR game.