24 MILLION GBA'S
December 13, 2000

Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that Nintendo is planning to ship 24 million Gameboy Advance systems during its first year of availability.

The company expects 1 million units of the GBA to be available by the end of its current fiscal year (March 31), 10 days after the system launches, and plans to boost production to 2 million units in June, 1 month before the North American and European launches. Based on the total of 24 million, it can be assumed they plan to boost the amount of monthly production yet again either late in 2001 or in early 2002.

In attempt to meet the supply Nintendo is demanding, Sharp has increased production of its high-definition thin film transistor LCD's.

For the first half of this year, Nintendo has shipped 10 million GBC units, so the company definitely has every reason to believe the demand will be there for the new generation, despite competition from itself (Gameboy Color) and Bandai (Wonderswan Color).

If the company manages to come close to that shipment schedule and manages to sell a good portion of those shipments, its fiscal year should be strong, regardless of whether the Gamecube is released in 2001 as currently scheduled.