NINTENDO SETS GBA LAUNCH DATE
February 13, 2001

Nintendo has announced the North American launch of its GameBoy Advance will be on June 11. This should be music to Nintendo fans' ears, as it means the system will be available earlier than expected, by a month.

Unfortunately, due to the high demand of the system, this will mean shortages in line with Sony's PS2 shortages last fall, which are still going on now in much of the world. This was easy to predict because, like PS2 is the follow-up to the most successful console ever, GBA is the follow-up to the most successful portable ever. Those of you who remember that situation know most people who want one will have to wait to get one.

Current projections are that the system will have more than 3 million pre-orders in Japan (more). The system will be released there on March 21, and 1 million systems will be available during the first 10 days. 1 million systems per month will be produced from there, so by the time June 11 hits, we can expect 3-3.5 million total units, or not even enough to satisfy Japanese demand, which by that time will be well over the 3 million pre-orders. Then there are the soon-to-follow European/PAL launches to consider.

Fortunately, Nintendo plans to boost production to 2 million per month starting in July, so the good news is that shortages should only last for a couple of months if they meet or beat projections. Additionally, since there are no worries of Christmas shopping yet since the system will be released in the summer, that will relieve some of the problem.

The moral of the story: if you haven't pre-ordered one yet (and want to get one at launch or soon afterwards), do so as soon as possible.