An imported Dolphin at Christmas this year = Priceless :) Rumours of 56 bucks for the Factor 5 chipset. With that much just for the sound chip, will Nintendo eat the losses, or ship at $199.99? I personally feel that Nintendo can successfully launch the system at $199.99 and still be competitive, versus the DC, PS2, and X-Box.

Rumour from GDC’s showfloor put the cost of producing the finished chip for the next generation at a startling $56 per chip. When put into the context of Nintendo marketing the machine at an aggressive $149, huge losses on the actual machine are likely in the first year of release.

Nintendo has now officially delayed Dolphin until next year, with X-Box and Nintendo’s great white hope likely to ship within months of each other. No officially comment could be gleaned from Factor 5 at GDC.