GameCube delayed?
Could be pushed back two months in Japan and the States
Bloomberg's Japanese division have filed a news report claiming that the GameCube will miss its July release date in Japan. Although nobody here can decipher the original report, both Reuters and Bloomberg now carry confirmation from Nintendo herself, that the Japanese release date will be the 14th September. Reports at The GIA suggest the American release date will slip until mid-November. According to Bloomberg, Nintendo have made a decision to move the release date back after concerns arose that supply would not meet demand. Sony suffered from just such supply issues late last year when it launched its PlayStation 2 in America and Europe - a slowdown in production of the complicated graphics chip was deemed responsible for the stunted number of units at launch. Nintendo recently announced itself that the GameCube's European release date would slip till Spring 2002. It is now expected that a slew of announcements including price-changes will be made at E3 next month. The release date had always been viewed as aggressive, and speculation about slippage has been rife since the original announcement. That said, with the launch of the GameBoy Advance in Europe / North America to look forward to in June, and the console already on store shelves in Japan, it's unlikely that this latest announcement will cause too many problems for the gaming giant. Indeed, analysts at JP Morgan Securities Asia Ltd. were unconcerned, stating that "September and October are better," because they are closer to the festive period.