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Why did Nintendo go with tiny ass discs for GameCube when full sized discs fit fine?

Velocity:Design:Comfort

Velocity:Design:Comfort

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Nov 23, 2017
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They even spin up fine:


Obviously the laser doesn't read dvds because it's not a dvd laser, but did this just come down to licensing? Was the tiny disc format not licensed itself though?

I don't remember what game but at least one big third party game didn't get a gc port or had a severely cut down version because of the smaller disc format space. Does anyone know which game it was?
 
Astral Lovelace

Astral Lovelace

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Oct 25, 2017
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Velocity:Design:Comfort said:
They even spin up fine:


Obviously the laser doesn't read dvds because it's not a dvd laser, but did this just come down to licensing? Was the tiny disc format not licensed itself though?

I don't remember what game but at least one big third party game didn't get a gc port or had a severely cut down version because of the smaller disc format space. Does anyone know which game it was?
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Your video straight up talks about how he has a specially modified case to be able to hold the DVD.

Also, it is a DVD format, just not full sized, and most games didn't need more than the one disc -- those that did easily fit two disks inside of the case.
 

Deleted member 249

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Oct 25, 2017
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Velocity:Design:Comfort said:
They even spin up fine:


Obviously the laser doesn't read dvds because it's not a dvd laser, but did this just come down to licensing? Was the tiny disc format not licensed itself though?

I don't remember what game but at least one big third party game didn't get a gc port or had a severely cut down version because of the smaller disc format space. Does anyone know which game it was?
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The game in question was Burnout 3, where the GameCube port was canceled.
 
bluehat9

bluehat9

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Oct 25, 2017
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This was moving them kicking and screaming away from cartridges, but still having control and trying to stop piracy, right?
 
NookSports

NookSports

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Oct 27, 2017
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I've always wondered how the GC would've done if it had a DVD player. That was one of the PS2's killer features, especially for the more casual crowd.
 
gofreak

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Oct 26, 2017
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Lower latency/seek times? Coming from cartridges I think they wanted to try to cut that down.

(However I don't know if it would be any better vs a data layout on a normal dvd that focussed data around the center of the disc... but I think I recall at the time, talk of lower latency access)
 
Robin64

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nazgul_hunter said:
I've always wondered how the GC would've done if it had a DVD player. That was one of the PS2's killer features, especially for the more casual crowd.
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Part of me always wanted the Panasonic Q to come out here.

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TheMoon

TheMoon

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Oct 25, 2017
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the DVD format was new and they'd have to license them from Sony which ...of course ... at that time ...nah. That's why you make your own. Note how they also never used Blu-rays. They had another propriety format for Wii U discs (dem round edges!).

That's also why their drives never read regular "DVDs" or "CDs" - because of licensing they'd have to sort out with Sony, who owns all of those.

welp, internet lies.

 
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mute

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Might have been an earlier decision, but the DC shenanigans was going on around that time.
 
dabri

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Nov 2, 2017
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1: piracy: They saw what happened with the previous gen CD based systems and were scared
2: They enjoyed a mighty hefty manufacturing fee for producing carts for third party studios to print games. They wanted a way to cary that over to the GQ and disk media
3: They thought they knew better than everyone else
 

Mad_Rhetoric

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May 7, 2019
3,466
Same reason they went with cartridges for the N64, theyre Nintendo and do their own weird thing, even when its a decision that hurts them.
 

burger rain

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Jul 29, 2019
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It's Nintendo's design philosophy that every system must have at least one baffling and anachronistic design decision.
 
Shoichi

Shoichi

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Jan 10, 2018
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Loading times being faster than the big discs, piracy, uniqueness, etc. They wanted to reduce loading times to be as near cart-like as possible (they were still coming off of the N64) which the mini discs are.
 
RobFox64tm

RobFox64tm

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Oct 30, 2017
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Though I hated it at the time, now I can appreciate the smaller discs as a collector. Makes the GameCube unique.
 
zma1013

zma1013

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Oct 27, 2017
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nazgul_hunter said:
I've always wondered how the GC would've done if it had a DVD player. That was one of the PS2's killer features, especially for the more casual crowd.
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Wouldn't have mattered. Powerful momentum of Playstation branding created by the PSOne + purple lunchbox image + poor 3rd party support is what ultimately mattered most and doomed the Gamecube to low sales.
 
Omegasquash

Omegasquash

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Oct 31, 2017
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dabri said:
1: piracy: They saw what happened with the previous gen CD based systems and were scared
2: They enjoyed a mighty hefty manufacturing fee for producing carts for third party studios to print games. They wanted a way to carry that over to the GC and disk media
3: They thought they knew better than everyone else
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Bingo. The manufacturing fee isn't a small source of income for them. Still is a thing to this day with Switch, AFAIK.
 

Tiggleton

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Apr 25, 2019
457
RobFox64tm said:
Though I hated it at the time, now I can appreciate the smaller discs as a collector. Makes the GameCube unique.
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Why did you hate them? I never had a problem with the discs as a kid. In fact I liked them at the time because I thought it was this cool new medium. Didn't really see mini DVDs in the wild outside from Gamecube games.
 
OP
OP
Velocity:Design:Comfort

Velocity:Design:Comfort

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Nov 23, 2017
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Astral/H3X said:
Your video straight up talks about how he has a specially modified case to be able to hold the DVD.

Also, it is a DVD format, just not full sized, and most games didn't need more than the one disc -- those that did easily fit two disks inside of the case.
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But I meant the GameCube would have the same dimensions, not that the tray literally is the right size
 

joesiv

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Feb 9, 2018
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Funny fact, the later gamecube devkits accepted standard DVD disk for builds. Earlier versions require super expensive carts lol...
 

J Snow

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Oct 25, 2017
275
Crazy to think Nintendo did something so impractical to prevent piracy but Nintendo is so bad now days at securing their systems.
 
saladdays

saladdays

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Sep 11, 2018
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I agree with more or less everyone here that it was partially to get rid of piracy, but I also think that the smaller discs pushed a more kid friendly image. I think they realized that there was no way they could do cartridges again, but they still wanted to do something that appears "safer" than normal discs. The GC discs being small enough for a very small child to insert with no trouble whatsoever seems like an intentional choice to me.
 

Pokémon

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Oct 27, 2017
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J Snow said:
Crazy to think Nintendo did something so impractical to prevent piracy but Nintendo is so bad now days at securing their systems.
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The latter part is actually not true in fact the Switch has a very secure OS. The problem was a hardware oversight on nvidia's part which made an exploit possible.
 
Future Gazer

Future Gazer

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Oct 26, 2017
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I've always assumed that it was just Yamauchi being too stubborn and prideful to adopt the standard format.
 
AndrewDean84

AndrewDean84

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Oct 25, 2017
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I miss the GameCube and everything about it. The boot up, the controller, the small discs, the look of the console, and even the memory cards.
 
DJ_Lae

DJ_Lae

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Oct 27, 2017
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They were so cute...and absurdly small. I guess it wouldn't be Nintendo if their initial piracy paranoid move to a new storage format wasn't hamstrung somehow.

I also always feel like I'm alone whenever the Panasonic Q is mentioned, because I think it's hideous and always has been. The tacky blue lights, the entire thing being coated in ostentatious chrome and gloss...yuck.
 
PSqueak

PSqueak

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Oct 25, 2017
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two reasons:

-Complete control of disc production via propietary format
-harder and costlier to pirate
 
Kuro

Kuro

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Oct 25, 2017
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I think they even burned the discs in reverse so pirates at home would have trouble burning onto a mini disc with a normal burner.
 
saladdays

saladdays

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Sep 11, 2018
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pld said:
The latter part is actually not true in fact the Switch has a very secure OS. The problem was a hardware oversight on nvidia's part which made an exploit possible.
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It's also important to note that Nintendo's hacking community is probably the most fervent one out there. The only console I remember being even slightly as big as the last few Nintendo consoles hacking-wise was maybe the PSP or PS2.
 
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