Nintendo Co, the No. 2 video-game console maker, will release its GameCube player in Japan on Sept. 14, almost two months later than it had planned.
The new machine, successor to the Nintendo 64 console, will be released in the US in mid-November, Nintendo said in a briefing yesterday to reporters. The price was not specified.
Nintendo is facing competition from Sony Corp, maker of the PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Corp, which is aiming to release its Xbox player later this year. Console makers are rushing to be the first with devices that offer more life-like graphics, better sound and Internet access.
GameCube will be the second of Nintendo's major product releases this year. The company behind the Pokemon stable of characters in March released Game Boy Advance, a hand-held game player featuring a brighter screen and faster processing power than its best-selling Game Boy player.
Nintendo had planned to release GameCube in July. The delay puts the company further behind Sony, whose series of PlayStation game consoles dominates the industry. Sony has already sold more than 10 million PlayStation 2 game consoles since the 128-bit game machine reached Japanese store shelves in March last year.
Nintendo also said in a release that it plans to ask shareholders in June to allow it to buy back its own shares more "flexibly," without providing details. The change would make it possible for Nintendo to buy back as many as 14 million shares.
Earlier yesterday, Nintendo said earnings in its fiscal year ended last month are likely to exceed its previous forecast by 22 percent as the yen's fall boosted the value of its foreign-currency holdings.
The Kyoto-based game maker expects to post group net income of ?95 billion (US$771.9 million) in its fiscal year ended March 31, up from its previous projection of ?78 billion, the company said in a press release. Sales will be 7.5 percent lower than projected earlier, at ?462.5 billion.
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