Freezing the Gamecube
If the punters don't like it, Yamauchi won't have it!
Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi has made a startling revelation about the GameCube's rocky future. Speaking to a Tokyo newswire, Mr. Yamauchi, who is normally over-zealous about such matters, went so far as to say that "If we are unable to see a positive response at E3, this will have a disastrous impact on Nintendo... and we may have to consider freezing the Gamecube business altogether."
The company has delayed the GameCube until September 14th in Japan, this much is known, but it has always been thought that things were going well internally. Many summised that the Japanese setback was always bound to happen. AFX News, on the other hand, cites Nintendo's dismay over the rising cost of NEC chips as a major factor.
In all seriousness, the GameCube has very little chance of upsetting the crowds at E3. It's well known that Nintendo has been incredibly strict about the quality of software in-house, with Shigeru Miyamoto holding the reigns on games like Mario and Metroid. As a long-time Nintendo fan I would personally be very upset if they chose to sideline the project, but as our friends at Daily Radar point out, it would have to be a Virtual Boy 2001 before Yamauchi would give serious thought to canning it.