Have you read news of the Dolphin being delayed until 2001? Guess again. According to an interview by Next Generation Magazine with Nintendo's head game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo's #2 executive Hiroshi Imanishi, the Dolphin is still probable to be released in 2000...that is, if the right games materialize in time. Also, new information about the name of the system, the rumored $99 price, where the games for the dolphin stand as of now, plus more. I'll have my thoughts on the interview later this weekend, but for now, here are the key items:

NG: First off, is Dolphin still the name of the system?

Miyamoto: Yes. I am of the opinion that the dolphin can be the actual official name of the product, but some people disagree.

NG: What's the status of the development right now? What do you think of the machine's progress?

SM: Right now, the hardware development team is asking if we, the software creators, have any extra desires to add into the hardware design. But I know that these people are the same who developed the N64. They have already learned quite a lot about what to with 3D graphics generation and so forth, and they are full of new ideas. So rather than thinking about what we want the new machine to do, I'm concentrated more on thinking what we should do with the new hardware.

NG: A very big rumor right now is that Dolphin will retail for $99. True?

Hiroshi Imanishi: The only place I have heard that is in Next Generation! In the interview article with Howard Lincoln, he just said it would be very aggressively priced. Next Generation was the one who speculated that it would be possible to do it at $99.

SM: May be if we leave out the DVD drive, then we can make it $99!

NG: Does a completed chipset exist yet?

HI: The basic design has already been made, but it's going to be next year before we are going to be complete. We're integrating a lot of functions onto just a few chips.

NG: Is there any possibility that you will make a year 2000 launch?

HI: Yes, but I think whether or not we can meet the 2000 deadline depends on what kind of games materialize.

NG: Has work begun on games yet?

SM: Yes, I am personally involved in a variety of projects.

NG: Anything you can tell us?

SM: What I'm doing right now is making the foundations and environments for the for the development of several different projects. I understand that some users are already anticipating the next-generation system to be more gorgeous in terms of graphics and so forth, but I think that is only part of it. Rather, I think we should pay more attention to the very simple concept of how the new system should be played and what kind of play-rules are going to apply. Unfortunately, these are ideas that can be easily duplicated by others once they're revealed, so I'm not in position to say anything right now.