Nintendo Co will fall short of meeting demand for its GameCube in Japan and North America because of shortages in the supply of components such as NEC Corp-made graphics chips, Vice President Atsushi Asada said.
GameCube will debut in Sept. 14 in Japan and on Nov. 18 in the US. Nintendo plans to ship four million units by the end of March next year, not enough to satisfy expected demand, Asada said. GameCube is Nintendo's answer to a challenge from Microsoft Corp's Xbox console.
Kyoto-based Nintendo, like Sony Corp before it, is having trouble getting the chips that give the graphics produced by GameCube and Sony's PlayStation 2 a heightened sense of realism.
Shipping enough consoles is crucial for Nintendo if it is to beat back the Xbox, which will reach stores 10 days before GameCube.
"Nintendo has to save some [GameCubes] for the US release,'' said Soichiro Fukuda, an analyst with Nikko Salomon Smith Barney Ltd.
"It has to start shipping to the US by mid-October at the latest when you consider the amount of time it will take to make sure the product reaches retailers on time." Increasing production is not possible because key components for the machine, like the NEC-made chips, are made using special production lines, Asada said.
Failing to meet demand holds risks for Nintendo, analysts said. Sony has sold more than 15 million PlayStation 2 game players. Microsoft plans to sell 600,000 to 800,000 units of the Xbox on the first day, and 1 million to 1.5 million by year-end.
NEC makes microchips for the graphics controller used in the GameCube and for the console's memory card. The parts are made at NEC's plant in Kyushu, Japan, where production started in January, followed by test production this month.
Nintendo pushed back the US release date of the machine by about two weeks to ensure adequate supplies once the game system reaches stores.
Parts shortages are nothing new for Nintendo, creator of the Game Boy handheld player and Nintendo 64, the five-year-old precursor to the GameCube console.
In the year to March 2000, Nintendo's profit fell 35 percent from the previous year, marking the first decline in six years.
Sales also slumped because the No. 2 video-game maker ran short of components such as microchips and liquid crystal displays.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique