NCL President Hiroshi Yamauchi talks about the Dolphin delay and other things we can expect from Nintendo...
It really wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to figure out that the Dolphin will be delayed until 2001 in Japan. Yamaguchi has just confirmed this to be true. I was so ready to import one of these this year. Hopefully the GBA won't be delayed until next year (in Japan).
Also other confirmations...The Dolphin will have internet capabilities (we assumed that) and the system will be a different name than "Dolphin". An end to Pokemon? (because of Card Hero?) Here's the juice.
Hiroshi Yamauchi, the delightfully outspoken president of NCL, has once again piped up to the press, not only about his company's future, but about the fate of its competitors, too. The first thing Mr. Yamauchi confirms is that there are indeed major announcements coming August 24th, just in time for Nintendo's slick Spaceworld expo in Japan...
...unfortunately, one of them is a definite Dolphin delay. When asked about the Dolphin's arrival, Mr. Yamauchi said, "We are planning to release it next year, but we will change the name of the console. I can't tell you what that name will be right now." As for the system's internet capability? "It will have a function to access the Internet. We are entering the market as a latecomer, so the console will have to outperform Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2."
It's obvious that Nintendo truly sees Sony as its only major competitor. Mr Yamauchi freely disses the PlayStation 2's soft game lineup by saying, "If we release software for the console similar to what Sony has for PlayStation 2, that would be a failure." Yowza. Not that I don't agree with the guy...
The Game Boy Advance was also a subject of discussion to Nintendo's president. "We will release the hardware late this year or by year-end. The unit's performance will be similar to that of the Dreamcast." We can only assume that he's referring to the unit's 2-D capabilites, as it's already been discussed that the GBA won't be a serious poly-pusher. Surpringly, Mr. Yamauchi admits that there really might be an end in sight for the Pokemon phenom. The lead franchise for the the GBA "won't be Pokemon, but something different, which will be able to replace it even after the popularity of Pokemon dies away."
