Japanese analysts have stated that they are skeptical of Nintendo delivering the Gamecube on time. They estimate that the system will probably be released in Japan by fall 2001. Nintendo assured that the Gamecube would be released by July 2001 in Japan.
Square has recently stated that theyw ant to remake Final Fintasy IV,V, and VI, but that it would be technically impossible to make the games on the Wonder Swan. In addition, Square said they have an original Final Fantasy game in production but they did not say it would be out for the Wonder Swan, only for a next generation handheld. This could be the Game Boy Advance or the Xboy, Microsofts new handheld device.
Capcom is rumored to being closed to announce several games that they will produce for the Game Cube.
It has been somehwat confirmed that the Dolphin's name will be Nintendo Game Cube. Variations of the name can be Nintendo Cube or N-Cube.
Those cool cats at IGN64.com have uncovered some interesting facts. It is almost 95% confirmed that the system will NOT be named Starcube. This was taken from information from devlopers who have stated that they know what the Dolphin's real name is (On a side note, I am extremely happy that the name Starcube will not be the systems name because it sounds lame as hell). Also, it was reported that the D-pad will almost certainly be one the Dolphin controller (whew!).
The Dolphin may be called Starcube. The Dolphin release in the U.S. is set for March 2001 while the Japenese release is undecided. Nintendo is thinking of releasing the Dolphin in Japan and the U.S. at the same time. As of now, nothing is finalized.
Shigeru Miyamoto, of Nintendo has recently stated at E-3 that there is a good chance that Star Fox will make a showing on the Dolphin.
According to some publishers, there is some talk that the Dolphin will not be released until fall of 2001. As of now it seems as if this may or may not be true but Nintendo is infamous for delaying games and systems. We'll just have to wait and see what Nintendo tries to do.
Continuing on the Nintendo front, there is word that progress on Dolphin is moving along much quicker than usual (by Nintendo's standards), due to NOJ and NOA allocating massive resources to Dolphin development. Even still, higher-ups at NOJ remain unconcerned if Dolphin misses a 2000 release. When Dolphin eventually does ship, the date might occur in the US before Japan, however, given NOJ's newfound confidence in NOA's investments in development teams such as Nintendo Software Technologies and Retro Studios.
What is definitely one of the most unknown features of the Dolphin besides the technical specifications would have to be the controller. It's shape, design, button arrangements are hidden in secrecy at the Nintendo headquarters. So far, the only information we've known to this date is that Shigeru Miyamoto is designing the controller, and has said that it will be smaller than the N64 controller, and will also be focused to work on a certain game he is developing. However, more information on the controller has been leaked. We now know that the controller will be smaller because of two key points. Japanese children have complained that the N64 controller was too big to use, and sharply degraded gameplay on the Japanese people. Secondly, the bulkiness of the controllers were so much that Japanese people living in small apartments complained of having no room to walk around (no joke) and thus bought PlayStation's because of the rather small size of its controller. We have also learned that the N64's control stick will remain intact in the Dolphin controller, but Nintendo might forgo including the d-pad to minimize the size. We find this hard to believe, as that all fighting games almost require the use of the d-pad. There is only a handful of people that can control fighting games with the 3D stick on N64, so the exclusion of the d-pad would be rather silly. But it does seem that Miyamoto wants to have two grips, rather than three. If you look at both the Dreamcast and PlayStation controller, they both have a 3D stick and a d-pad. So there shouldn't be any problems with Nintendo including both on the Dolphin. Other than that, this is all the information we know at this time.
In the video game magazine GameWeek, Hironbu Sakaguchi, the legendary creator of the Final Fantasy series, stated that Squaresoft does not have an exclusive Sony only contract so there is a possibility that Squaresoft could produce for the Dolphin. GameWeek asked Mr. Sakaguchi about a Final Fantasy game on the Dolphin, and he stated that since the Dolphin won't be released until 2001 then the first Final Fantasy game released on the Dolphin will be Final Fantasy X, if they chose to make the game for Nintendo. Sakaguchi hinted that if the Dolphin was good, then there would be a good chance of it seeing a Final Fantasy game. If the Dolphin lives up to its' expectations, then the Dolphin will have Squaresoft games. Square is too smart to limit itself to only one system and they will probably go multi-platform when Nintendo's system comes out.
It seems that they found out Nintendo seems to be looking into DVD-RAM (Writable DVDs, which can hold up to 5.2GBs of memory), and this allows gamers to save games directly on the DVD. _ I think we all know why Nintendo is doing this, because Nintendo is known for writability, and it's something Miyamoto-san wants more than a raise! DVD RAM is different from DVD, because it's essential a large optical disk that can be written to as well as read. This would take the best part of the 64dd with the size of DVD (about 5 gigs). Typically, a DVD RAM drive is about 2x, but you can expect that if Nintendo uses it they'll add some speed to the drive. The source of this news come straight from the man himself, Miyamoto. Supposedly he revealed it in a recent interview.
Shigeru Miyamoto(Nintendo genius game maker) has said that Nintendo's top games won't be able to make the expected release date for the Dolphin, so this leads many to believe that the system will be introduced in the fall of 2001.