oh this was why we were hearing so much about gc marketshare...

[Bound High]

In most markets in the world the goal of the firm is profit. In Japan, it's market share. Whenever there is a new product like a walkman introduced, every company cranks out as much of the product as they can, at razor thin profit margins (sometimes at a loss, even). Then there is a major shakeout -- usually the firms that have less financial backing (i.e. they don't belong to a keiretsu with a big bank to back them up) have to drop out. In the end, you have a small number of firms, which quickly form a cartel and jack up the prices to make money. Distribution channels are securely locked away, blocking any would-be competitors. At that point, the game is over. Japanese business also has cozy ties with Japanese bureaucrats, and often employs them after they retire in a system called amakudari, which gives them a key player with all the government connections still in place. In the 20th Century, most governments would take up anti-trust legislation; Japan has actually encouraged the growth of big firms to raise its GDP. Ever since Japan reopened itself to the world in 1868, it has been on an export craze to make money -- while carefully protecting its own industries. Few Japanese even know, let alone know why, a Japanese camera costs more in Japan than in New York. A lot of the reason is that Japan is out to capture market share, while already securing it from competition at home. This kind of strategy, by the way, is why the Japanese market is the most competitive in the world, and if your company is more interested in next quarter's profits you will not survive.
http://www.thejapanfaq.com/FAQ-Prices.html

A few months ago all you heard was about gamecube and its market share. At the time I didn't think it was important, and in America it isn't, unless it could bolster software sales since that is where their profit is.

My questions to you:
Have the sales of GC budget titles spiked due to increased market share?
Have the sales of newly released GC titles increased substantially due to increased market share?