Nintendo to Give Away 'Zelda' with GameCube (Reuters)

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Struggling Japanese games company Nintendo, having fallen well short of its sales goals for the GameCube video game console, said on Friday it will give away one of its most important games for free with the purchase of the hardware.

Nintendo, which has been offering a free game from a small selection with the purchase of the $149.95 GameCube for a few months, said it will add "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" to the giveaway pool as of May 4 and continuing through July.

"Zelda" will replace "Resident Evil Zero" in the giveaway offer, which some retailers have supplemented with a second free game on their own.

Nintendo had been counting on "Zelda," the latest title in one of gaming's most successful and storied franchises, to boost the GameCube's fortunes after a disappointing holiday season.

"They just need to find ways to get more traction," RBC Capital Markets analyst Stewart Halpern told Reuters. "Apparently the title itself has not been enough to drive machine sales."

Earlier this week, Nintendo said it had shipped 5.6 million GameCubes worldwide in the fiscal year ended March 31, substantially shy of its goal of 10 million.

Nintendo was aggressive in promoting the new "Zelda" game before its launch, offering a free disc with versions of two classic "Zelda" games to people who pre-ordered the new title. The company claimed pre-sales of more than 600,000 copies of the game ahead of its late-March launch.

"They're really taking their best card and playing it," Halpern said.

As a further enticement, Nintendo also said on Friday it will include a demo disc, with playable samples of upcoming games, as part of the promotion.

Nintendo officials said earlier this week they would not cut the price of the GameCube unless their competitors lowered their prices. Sony Corp's dominant PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox both retail for $199.

After dominating the international video game market from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, Nintendo has been eclipsed by Sony and Microsoft in the global console market.