More from Hiroshi Imanishi! (2nd story below). Games are first in his eyes to take Sony out. He said basically that Pokemon wouldn't just be there only heavy hitter. Also there is a part where he said that GB hardware could be delayed....in Europe. Maybe that's where the GBA delay concept comes from in FGN'a story (one story below) Can Nintendo really pull off a 2000 release or is Nintendo just blowing smoke? Read the goods here.

OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Armed with runaway sales of its popular ``Pokemon'' game software, Nintendo Co Ltd said on Thursday it would put priority on strengthening its game line-ups to battle its biggest rival Sony Corp.

Pokemon, or Pocket Monsters, are Nintendo cartoons and video game characters that became a craze among children and spawned an action-packed U.S. cartoon film ``Pokemon: The First Movie,'' one of America's most popular animated films.

``Pokemon will not be the end. We will keep creating new games. At the same time, we would develop more Pokemon games by connecting them with mobile phones,'' Hiroshi Imanishi, a Nintendo director and general manager said in an interview.

Nintendo is now gearing up for a full-blown game battle with Sony, which is due to launch in March its next-generation PlayStation console with Internet capability and functions to allow the playing of DVD music and movie discs.

Nintendo, which is set for a global launch of its next-generation game machine Dolphin at the end of this year, also plans to introduce ``Gameboy Advance,'' a successor to the existing Gameboy player this summer in Japan, Imanishi said.

Priority On Software

Imanishi admitted that the new PlayStation2 could hurt Nintendo's business but added that Nintendo would maintain its policy of putting top priority on game software rather than hardware.

``Sony's PlayStation2 could affect us, but our business style is different from Sony's,'' he said, adding that the company would focus on entertainment and games in creating its new game player, rather than its potential role as an information terminal.

Last November, Nintendo launched long-awaited new Pokemon game software -- ``Pokemon Gold'' and ``Pokemon Silver'' -- in Japan, which scored combined sales of 5.2 million units by the end of last December, Imanishi said.

In the game, developed originally for the Nintendo's popular ``Gameboy'' console, players collect different pocket monsters each with different powers and then ``train'' them for competitive battles. The two new Pokemon games added more than 100 new monsters to the previous 151.

Imanishi said he was unsure whether sales of the two new Pokemon games will reach a planned eight million units by the end of March because of the impact of last year's earthquake in Taiwan where parts for the software are produced.

Production Of Gameboy Hardware Limited

Despite the limited productivity, he said that the company plans to start sales of the two Pokemon games overseas this autumn, although there is still a possibility that sales in Europe could be delayed till next year, he said.

As for Gameboy players, a tight supply of liquid crystal displays (LCD) and chips has limited monthly production of Gameboy hardware to around 1.5 million units, he said.

The current Pokemon craze meanwhile has prompted Nintendo to draw up a plan to create an amusement park ``Pokemon World'' in the ancient town of Kyoto, where Nintendo's headquarters is located.

``Our president came up with the idea of building a smaller version of Disneyland, because the Kyoto city needs to attract more visitors,'' he said. A specific location has not been fixed.

On the earnings front, Imanishi said Nintendo may achieve its earlier profit estimates for the year through March 31, although a strong yen poses a threat by cutting the yen-based value of profits earnings abroad and assets held in foreign currencies.

In November, Nintendo predicted parent current profit of 100 billion yen ($919.9 million) for year against an actual 135.39 billion yen the previous year.

($1-108.70 Yen)