As somebody who owned a Gamecube around that era, people at that time honestly didn't know what they wanted. By all accounts, F-Zero GX and other 1st party games should have been hits. People back claimed they were clamoring for "H a r d c o r e" games. But _noooo,_ the Gamecube was Purple and looked like a Lunchbox and had weird mini-discs. PS2 had people's attention, and XBox was still a very new 3rd competitor. Most telling is a game that also struggled in sales - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - actually got flak for being too difficult (it had its challenging moments but was far from unfair). Doesn't help either Nintendo poured a LOT of money into not just F-Zero GX, but it's arcade machine counterpart F-Zero AX. So when GX failed while other games were finding success, Nintendo needed a reason. Unfortunately one possible clue from Miyamoto himself is that he felt the series needed something unique to regain interests (aka a gimmick). Which wasn't accurate and most certainly is no longer valid after over 15 years.
Rosa: I remember all this, I got the Gamecube day one and the people at EB games thought it was strange I was getting the purple one but I loved it. Its my favourite console of all time. F-Zero GX was an amazing game, I would love a new F-Zero like GX/AX. Toshihiro Nagoshi's department at SEGA did a great job with the title. I DO dislike how Nintendo tries to bring back their IPs on their lower selling consoles then blames the lack of interest on the game instead of the console. (Also what happened with Star Fox Zero).
