Nintendo Eyes Next-Generation Console Launch (thanks the_culture) reports: "Nintendo Co. Ltd., creator of "Pokemon" video games, said on Thursday it planned to launch a next-generation home game console in 2005 or 2006 in a move to restore its clout in the lucrative home video game market." The article describes how GameCube sales have lagged behind expectations, a situation the company's president Satoru Iwata attributes to the more than a year head-start enjoyed by the PS2. The article goes into plans for games interoperable between the GC and the GBA hand-held, the possibility of a "not imminent" price cut for the system, and the financial situation Nintendo finds itself in, and quotes the Nintendo prez' vision of what the future holds for them and their competitors: "We will get ready for a (new) battle in 2005 although foreign game developers are now saying that rival next-generation systems won't come until 2006."