PROJECT DOLPHIN: PRICE, GBA
November 12, 1999

During his address at the annual Gerard Klauer Mattison Conference, Nintendo Of America's VP of Marketing, Peter Main, spoke a bit more about Project Dolphin, including the following previously unreleased information.

It has been said time and again that price is going to be a key in the next generation of systems. The reason Sega's Dreamcast launched so successfully was the low $199 price. Hoping to capitalize on the idea that price is important, Nintendo is planning a launch of the Dolphin for under $230.

With the Playstation2 planned at about $375 and Sega's Dreamcast + DVD + Zip Drive priced in the $350-400 range, this should go a long way in helping Nintendo to succeed (of the three, it will be the most powerful, and it definitely shouldn't need any add-ons).

Additionally, Nintendo will be giving the Dolphin full internet connectivity and is focused on the online gaming market. This should help it to compete against Sony, whose big push with the Playstation2 is their aim to establish high bandwidth capabilities and cable modem access.

On the topic of Game Boy Advance, he confirmed that it would have some level of Dolphin connectivity, and that Nintendo will "be announcing some intriguing ways for connecting the Game Boy Advance to the Dolphin console." Some methods that have been discussed previously include trading Pokemon via the Net, VMU-style mini-games, and radar screen for multi-player games.

Source: N2HQ