On November 18th, 2001, Nintendo released the GameCube in North America. As a sixth-generation video game system, the GameCube primarily competed with the Playstation 2, Dreamcast, and Xbox. The console was Nintendo's first console to use optical discs instead of ROM cartridges, and supported limited online gaming for a few games. Unlike its competitors, the GameCube solely focused on gaming, and did not have support for playing mass media like DVD or CD. Upon release, the GameCube was reviewed positively by critics. Nintendo went on to sell only 21.74 million GameCube units worldwide, afr fewer than expected, and discontinued the console worldwide in August 2007 in favor of the Wii.
