Nintendo announced on Friday that it would not release its next generation versions of Gameboy and next generation console unit, Gamecube, this year. This announcement marks a crucial hit for the company in the next generation console market, which was led off by the healthy debut of Sonys PlayStation 2 in Japan. The new Sony console looks to be a hot seller for the holiday season, with Sony set to raise ¥150 billion (US$1.4 billion) by selling bonds to keep up with the demand for the PlayStation 2. Nintendo said it will roll out Game Boy Advance on March 21 in Japan and in North America and Europe come July and Gamecube wont be released until July in Japan and October in North America. Upon the news of the delay, Nintendo shares fell 3.5%. In better news for the game creator, Nintendo of America Inc. and Songboy.com Inc. have settled an intellectual property lawsuit. As reported [AWN 6/14/00], Nintendo brought suit against Songboy.com, who developed and sold a device that attaches to the GameBoy console and enables it to play MP3 music files. The story gained extra attention once Rev. Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Silicon Valley joined in support of the minority owned Songboy.com. As part of the settlement, Songboy.com will change their name to Song-Pro.com and Nintendo has granted them a patent license. No other details of the agreement were released.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
