Nintendo of America Thought the GameCube’s Purple Color Scheme Was “Female Looking”

Culture across the world is interesting. One of the most iconic consoles ever is the GameCube’s purple launch console. It was strange, had a handle bar (Making it the first portable “home console”, no?), and it was one of the first launch consoles to debut in a secondary color. Nintendo of America apparently were not fans of this color scheme, and in a recent interview with VGC to celebrate the console’s 20th anniversary, we learned a little more about the actual launch.

Former VP of marketing and corporate affairs with Nintendo of America Perrin Kaplan mentioned that the team on their side went to Japan’s headquarters in Kyoto to suggest “that the purple was not the best to start with”. She added that it “just didn’t feel masculine”. Ultimately, as we know, Nintendo ended up sticking with purple for the GameCube, but there is more to dissect.

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.

Perrin Kaplan, formerly with Nintendo of America

Another former employee, Beth Llewelyn, also jumped into the conversation and shared some insight. The former director of corporate communications with Nintendo of America mentioned that game systems around the GameCube days were black, and the company was “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.”

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.

Beth Llewelyn, formerly with Nintendo of America

The GameCube released in North America on November 18th, 2002, which was the reason for the interview. However, it first released in Japan on September 14th, 2001, and Europe did not end up getting the system until May 3rd, 2002.

Thank you for stopping by Nintendo Link for all of your gaming news and updates! What do you think of the drama around the GameCube’s purple color scheme? Are you surprised? 2001 was a different time, huh? Let us know what you think about this in the comments below! Happy gaming, everyone.