YAMAUCHI SPEAKS
June 9, 2000

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Nintendo of Japan President Hiroshi Yamauchi had a number of interesting things to say about Nintendo's future plans.

On Dolphin: "We are planning to release it next year, but we will change the name of the console".

No surprise here. Dolphin would've finally been an original name, but we're probably going to get stuck with something like N128 or NDVD. As for the 2001 launch, most people probably already saw it coming by now, and it should be good considering a 2000 launch would've been rushed.

On PS2: "If we release software for the [Dolphin] console similar to what Sony has for PlayStation 2, that would be a failure. We are entering the market as a latecomer so the console will have to outperform Sony's PlayStation 2."

Now all Nintendo needs to do is outperform Sony's marketing, a task sure to be more difficult than outperforming first generation (admittedly rushed) PS2 software.

On Nintendo's Internet Plans: "We are planning to introduce an Internet business next March or April. The first step will be online sales of a brand new type of Pokemon cards."

The good news is that the company should be able to offer internet services almost right after launch. Let's hope their internet plans solidify beyond Pokemon, though.

Yamauchi also said that the day before Space World (August 24th) will see more details on Dolphin being released, along with new GBA details. The show itself will presumably be all about the games, which should definitely be the meat and potatoes of the show considering a) the X-Box spec announcements and b) Nintendo's track record of quality games.

Source: Video Game Heaven.com