Dear Future Gamer

After reading Neil's letter (Cartridge Concern), I was somewhat surprised that people out there are unaware of Nintendo's current situation with DVD and Dolphin. Nintendo won't be at a disadvantage to Sony because Nintendo aren't making Dolphin's DVD drive themselves. Instead, production of the drive unit will be undertaken by the largest consumer electronics company in the world, Matsushita (they own the Technics and Panasonic brand names). They're well versed in DVD technology and the perils and pitfalls therein (as well as the great benefits to be had).

Very little money will therefore need to be spent by Nintendo on R&D as Matsushita will be responsible for that area. As for the closure of the cartridge factories, such action would only serve to bring money into Nintendo. Either that, or over time the cartridge plants could be re-fitted to produce DVD discs - a time-consuming process, but in the long term it would leave Nintendo with more assets.

With Dolphin, Nintendo have brought in a trio of experienced companies to help make a technically proficient system capable of meeting the demands of the industry and gamers alike. IBM are designing and producing the PowerPC-based CPU, ArtX the graphics hardware, and (as mentioned above), Matsushita the DVD drive. Have faith in Nintendo. They're an experienced company and know their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of their opponents. They wouldn't try to 'go it alone' in unfamiliar territory, especially when the competition has already started out ahead of them.

LoRez

FG: Well, that's put us straight. Any moles in Matsushita care to comment?