Nintendo delays U.S. GameCube debut

TOKYO, Japan -- Nintendo, the Japanese inventor of the hit Pokemon character, said it was delaying the U.S. debut of its GameCube console by two weeks.

However, the world's second-largest home video-game maker stuck to its target of shipping four million of the machines it hopes will be its new flagship by March 31.

The delay in the U.S. launch to November 18 from November 5 means the new console will appear in stores after the rival Xbox, due November 8 from Microsoft Corp.

But Nintendo executives emphasized the GameCube still will be available in plenty of time for the Christmas shopping season.

The delay will have no negative impact on sales and is simply to prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November, said George Harrison, senior vice president for Nintendo of America Inc.'s marketing and corporate communications.

"We looked at the available quantity that we had, and we felt that it's more important to have sufficient quantity for Thanksgiving weekend, and we thought that was a better day to go on sale," he said.

Nintendo plans to launch GameCube in Japan Sept. 14 with an initial shipment of 500,000, going head-to-head with front-runner Sony Corp's PlayStation 2 and fresh entrant Xbox, due to go on sale in the autumn.

Analysts were less concerned than the market over the delay.

"As long as the company can ship four million units by end-March, we don't worry," said Eiji Maeda, senior analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research.

"GameCube's game lineup is wide ranging and fun enough to attract more gamers than its current Nintendo64 consoles did," he said, adding that he expects Nintendo's share of the home video game machine market to rise by 5 to 10 percent by 2004.

Nintendo plans to release three game titles for GameCube when it debuts in Japan, and add four more titles, excluding any released by third-party developers, by the end of the year.

The three games include "Luigi's Mansion," an adventure game of a brother of Mario, and "Super Monkey Ball" created by Nintendo's old rival Sega Corp.

At least one title that will enable gamers to play on both GameCube and Game Boy Advance will hit stores this year.

By linking the two consoles, users can transfer a character from one machine to the other and continuously play the same game whether at home or outside.

Pokemon on GameCube

In a move aimed at winning the hearts of game players, Nintendo plans to introduce next year its popular Pocket Monster, or Pokemon, games for the GameCube as well as for its handheld game player Game Boy Advance, Hiroshi Imanishi, a director at Nintendo, said Thursday.

Imanishi said the company will draw up a plan by the year's end for an increase in production of the GameCube.

Monthly output of the GameCube currently is 600,000 units. "We would like to raise monthly production to one million units as soon as possible," he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.