I'm back from holidays now, so you can look forward to about 52 weeks of uninterrupted Digests by yours truly. (Assuming Conor doesn't kick me off the job for laziness in the meantime) .Not exactly a ton of news for you all this week, Digesters, but what news we do have is certainly of the interesting variety.
Let's begin with the news that sales of the GameCube have fallen so much that the big N have decided to stop producing the console- for now. The company has decided to sell (or, sigh, try to sell) its remaining inventory before producing any more Cubes. The stoppage of production will last until the Autumn, and was revealed by Ninty head honcho, Satoru Iwata in an Financial Times article. But it doesn't stop there- Iwata conceded, for the first time by anyone at Nintendo that "it had made a strategic mistake by not ensuring that it had a consistent flow of attractive software for the Game Cube."
Frankly, I think he's being too hard on himself here- the GC's software portfolio is much better than the N64's was after the same time on the market- Nintendo's game has considerably upped in the software stakes in terms of quantity- we've seen updates of the Mario, Zelda and Metroid series in one year, add that to countless gems such as Eternal Darkness, Wave Race, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, and plenty more. Interesting to see such an admission by the man, though.

Iwata's comments grew more interesting as the article went on- he then criticized Nintendo's competitors, saying that its difficult to "continue attracting users with games that are becoming more and more graphically sophisticated and difficult to play."

"Games that are sophisticated require a lot of time and energy," he said. As games became more complicated, players were given up playing and this was leading to the gradual shrinkage of the market, he warned.

And get this:

"We are thinking of launching a completely different kind of game. We are confident that we can develop a product that anyone can enjoy and that will provide people with a new kind of excitement," he said.

Iwata, a man not known for his bravado, went on to say something fascinating- that Nintendo would make an announcement in the Spring- an announcement of a new Nintendo product, that "will change the world". I can hardly wait. Let the speculation begin!

Seriously though, this is one of the most interesting things Iwata has ever said, and gives Nintendo fans plenty of food for thought about Nintendo's next console (presumably this revolutionary product)

Meanwhile, Nintendo have announced a couple of titbits of information regarding the present generation of consoles- they have revealed details of a rewards scheme for the United States, very similar to the Nintendo VIP scheme seen in Europe. Called Club Nintendo, the programme will allow consumers to build up point, or stars, with every first and second-party game purchased. Hardly mind-blowingly good news, but welcome, I suppose, all the same. On a side-note, Ninty Europe have let slip that our very own VIP system is to be upgraded in the near future- we'll soon be able to trade in our hard-earned stars for real Gamecube games and t-shirts, not just dull screensavers and backgrounds. Nice.

Namco have been confirmed as co-developers (with NCL) of the next instalment in the brilliant, brilliant Donkey Kong series of games. Let's hope they can live up to the shining example provided by Rare in the days of the glorious SNES. And the frankly sad conversion of DKC on the GBA doesn't count- convert it properly next time, Nintendo. (The recent GBA iteration of Rare's DKC is so bad a conversion its almost like they're trying to sully Rare's good name) Anyway, whether Namco can produce the goods is anybody's guess- we'll see how Starfox 2 pans out early next year, in all probability. Oh yes, and Ninty have announced plans to make a 'Wario Ware' title for the GameCube. And this is something I'm not sure about, to be honest. The quickfire, simple, graphically sparse minigames of the original are perfectly suited to the GBA. One wonders how Nintendo can pull this one off. But then, Nintendo don't usually disappoint on the games front.

Several Japanese sources are suggesting that Game Designer's Studio, the team responsible for the latest Final Fantasy - Crystal Chronicles, released just the other day in Japan, are rumoured to be developing a new title called Kechirase Caravan Road. Although the platform hasn't been announced yet, it surely must be the GameCube, as it is Hiroshi Yamauchi's Q Fund which funds much of the Games Designer Studio. GDS, of course, are an offshoot of Square-Enix responsible for developing games for Nintendo's consoles.

Speaking of all things Final Fantasy, the GC-exclusive title, Crystal Chronicles got a solid 32/40 score in, you guessed it, Famitsu. 9,8,7,8 were the individual scores, with an uninvolving single player mode being cited as the primary reason for the slightly lower than expected mark.

This weeks Lazarus award goes to Rare, gobbled up by the Microsoft leviathan last year. The GBA-exclusive title in the frankly great Banjo Kazooie series (the N64 original really is something) Gruntilda's Revenge was widely thought to have been canned following its non-appearance for the last couple of years, despite Rare's promise to keep making GBA games. Well, lo and behold, the game is back on track, has got a publisher, and most importantly a confirmed release date. Rare have now confirmed that THQ will be publishing the game, and the release date was said to be 15th September 2003 for the US, with no UK date just yet. Excellent.

Following last week's news of the Rebel Strike pre-order bonus disk from Lucasarts, news reached us this week of the P.N.O.3 demo, which can be picked up from GAME stores once you pre-order the game itself (which is released on the 29th of this month) A �1.99 (Sterling) deposit will get you the disk, which is taken out of the price of the game once you actually purchase it.

French website Jeux-France recently had an interview with the man himself (that's Miyamoto of course) where he didn't say a whole lot interesting, but he did say that Capcom's Shinji Mikami, who has worked on Resident Evil 4, has expressed an interest in handling one of Nintendo's franchises, like Sega have done with F-Zero GX and Namco are doing with Star Fox Armada and now Donkey Kong. No word on an official agreement but it sounds promising. During the interview Miyamoto also stated that Metroid 2 should be out in 2004.

Well, that's about it. I'll be back next week with the digest as ever. Emails are welcome- just contact [email protected] or add me to your MSN list (that's [email protected]) if you want to talk about anything Nintendo-related.

Slan go f�ill.

Mark Cullinane