Following on from yesterday’s news that American retail was looking to take more GameCube units for launch to consolidate the expected lack of Xbox hardware, Nintendo of Japan has said that an increase in unit allocation is unlikely.

Speaking to Reuters of Japan, Hiroshi Imanishi, director at Nintendo Japan said, “It seems impossible for us to make any change to our GameCube shipment plan for this year given the limited production capacity. We can't just shift some of the consoles which were made for the Japanese market to the U.S. market because such a move would upset Japanese retailers, who are also asking for more consoles.”

This is not the snub it initially seems to be. It is just Nintendo keeping its word to its Japanese consumer base. “It would be difficult for us to ship more than 1.1 million players this year in the U.S. market,” continued Imanashi. “But we will consider boosting production early next year if we confirm solid demand for the new console there after the release.”

Erm hello! Europe! We are still awaiting a definite date from Nintendo HQ for the launch of the GameCube in our humble gaming territory. All we have to go on at present is “Spring 2002” which, to be honest, is no good to anyone.