Reuters is reporting, "Nintendo Co Ltd said on Friday it was considering executing a planned buyback of up to 14 million of its own shares, or about 10 percent of its total outstanding stock, after October 1." Nintendo's stock is down more than 30 percent since June on the yen's appreciation against the dollar that hurts Nintendo's bottom line and fears that the world economies will suffer after recent terrorist attacks. The move will help to prop up Nintendo shares. The buyback also serves as a defensive measure to prevent another company from launching a hostile takeover.

In what may be the most difficult job ever, Nintendo will be paying gamers in Japan to play GameCube on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with an hour lunch break. The pay? 1,000 yen [about $9] an hour. If you were just about to complain about transportation costs, Nintendo will take care of that too with compensation for your travel expenses. The interesting part of this story is that Nintendo is looking for gamers in the aged 20-25. Older gamers giving feedback to Nintendo on the company's games? We just hope that "testing" games extends well beyond bug work.

Today the flood gates were opened to information of Nintendo's GameCube marketing plans. Nintendo calls it their "most comprehensive and fully-integrated marketing campaign ever" - and we believe them. The $75 million launch campaign will extend from Nintendo Power to Maxim...

After a week long break following last Tuesday's tragedies, GameCubicle will resume industry coverage. We missed some major GameCube developments during this time including the Japanese launch of the console and the first print ads for the system... we'll back date the updates for these stories.

The guys at IGN Cube have found the first true American print advertisement for Nintendo's GameCube. The ad pictured here was taken from Rolling Stone magazine. It's pretty much self-explanatory and takes the phrase "Born to Play" to a new level.

Following the tragedies in America and weak GameCube launch in Japan, Nintendo's stock took a hit to be remembered. On September 10th NCL had a share price of about 18,500 yen. By September 14th, the company's shares were priced in the 16,000 range. Recently the stock has rebounded a little but not before hitting a low of around 13,500 on November 18th. Shares now stand at 15,500 yen.

Why the sharp decline in company trading? The weakening dollar greatly hurts Japanese exporters such as Nintendo by impacting profits after income is repatriated to the domestic currency. Economies around the world were hurt by the tragedies and expectation of military conflict. Further, the weak launch of the GameCube console in Japan took investors by surprise and fueled the selling.

The GameCube launched in Japan on September 14th to moderate crowds and somewhat disappointing sales. Nintendo reports that just 300,000 of the 450,000 units available at launch were sold in the first weekend.

ING Barings Securities analyst Lisa Spicer added some perspective stating, "I'm disappointed, although I am not surprised." She continued, "This does not mean it is a complete failure for them. Keep in mind, that just like the Americans, the Japanese were glued to their TVs, last week." Another major reason for the slow sales is likely the lack of a triple A title from Nintendo at launch. When Smash Bros Melee and Rogue Leader hit the market, sales will significantly improve.

Image by REUTERS

September 11, 2001. The United States was deliberately and maliciously attacked by foreign terrorists. If you would like to help relief efforts, you can make a donation to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund at Amazon or visit Helping.org for further options.

Our condolences go out to anyone who has just lost a friend or member of their family. Due to these events, GameCubicle.com has paused updates. They will resume in a day or two.

According to early reports from Japan, Famitsu (gods of gaming media) of Japan has given Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race, and Super Monkey Ball, gold titles. The equivalent to a 77.5% to 87.5%. Though it's not quite a "Platinum" rating, gold is a very high achievement for games rated by very harsh Famitsu reviewers. This should definitely be considered a positive development... Nintendo's true system-selling titles will not be released in Japan for a while after launch.

It's tradition for the gods of Japanese gaming media, Famitsu, to publish reviews of games within a week prior to launch. With GameCube only days away, it's conspicuous that Famitsu has yet to review any launch titles. Cloudchaser speculates that Nintendo requested that the publication hold reviews until after launch to give all titles an even chance in salse.

In a company financial statement, Midway announced an impressive list of titles in development for GameCube. Hitz 2002 is scheduled for release before year end. Both NFL Blitz 2002 and Spy Hunter will be released in Q1 2002. In Q2 2002, we'll see Gravity Games BMX, Red Card Soccer, MLB Slugfest, and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. Q3 2002 brings Mortal Kombat 5, NHL Hitz 2003, and NFL Blitz 2004. NBA Basketball, Defender, Freaky Fliers for Q4 2002. You can blink now.

GameCubicle has received word that a number of toys and electronics retailers will be receiving GameCube kiosks and point of purchase materials in late September. Toys R Us has stated September 24th as the day in store kiosks will be available. Retailers including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, right on down the line should receive similar materials around the same time.

EXCLUSIVE: Mario Twins Interview
Found everywhere from message boards to prominent gaming sites such as NintendoWeb, Mario Twins is the latest in a stream of word-of-mouth sensations to explode on the Web. For the first time ever, creator Keith McKnight discusses the creation of Mario Twins...

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