Official Nintendo documentation hitting publishers says we can expect major delays of both systems

Four separate publishers confirmed today that Nintendo's Dolphin system and Game Boy Advance will not be released in the US this year as planned, despite other rumblings from the Big N themselves. Evidently the company have been circulating official marketing plans for the two systems and, according to Nintendo of America's own intentions, both are firmly scheduled for a "third-quarter 2001" ship date.

Not only does this solidify a delay for the Dolphin system to 2001, but it also pushes back the announced November 1 release date of Game Boy Advance in the US. With Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color still going strong in the US (and with expected bold sales throughout the holidays), the delays, while unwanted, make perfect sense.

More surprising is what publishers are saying about Nintendo's internal strategies for Dolphin and Game Boy Advance, particularly that the company are still charging a high licensing fee to develop for the systems, thus driving up production costs considerably. "It's almost like developing for the cartridge format again," confided one publisher. "We've put all of our Dolphin and Game Boy Advance projects on hold because of it." These statements clash with previous remarks made by Nintendo regarding the Dolphin system, which they claim will be very cheap to develop for. Also, it's unknown just how comparable the licensing fees for PS2 development are.

Any which way you cut it though, costly licensing fees mixed with an arrival almost one year later than PS2's 2000 launch do not bode well for Nintendo's next-generation console.

Courtesy of IGN.com