Sundog used our newssubmit to tell us that Nintendo has said on Thursday that it planned to launch their next-generation home game console in 2005 or 2006:
 "We are developing a new home video game console with a plan to release the new system around the same time as rival makers do," President Satoru Iwata told Reuters in an interview. |
Industry veteran Nintendo, which has fallen well behind leader Sony Corp and vies with newcomer Microsoft Corp for the number two spot in the console market, suffered poor sales of its flagship GameCube console during the crucial holiday shopping season. In contrast, Sony said this month it had sold 8.5 million PlayStation 2s during the shopping season, up 24 percent from a year earlier, and that accumulated shipments topped 50 million units worldwide.
Iwata, who took over in May from the charismatic Hiroshi Yamauchi, said the GameCube console would miss its sales target of 10 million units by over 10 percent this business year and GameCube software sales would fall short of a 55-million-unit goal. "The PlayStation 2 debuted one-and-a-half years ahead of the GameCube. If we had launched the GameCube at the same time as PlayStation 2, the result would have been different," he said.
Nintendo's focus for 2003 is to offer new types of games which will allow consumers to play both on the GameCube and Game Boy Advance. A price slash of the GameCube console is also a possibility according to the article.
Source: Reuters.com
