Amy's i: NINTENDO HINT AT GAMECUBE 2; NET NEWS.

Byline: Amy Vickers

THE three big games firms began muttering about launch dates for their next-generation consoles a while ago.

And now Nintendo has upped the pace, rounding up senior execs and sending them out on a mission: hype up GameCube 2 - but don't give too much away.

Insiders are now hinting that GameCube 2, also known as N5, will beat rivals from Microsoft and Sony to market and come out in 2005.

But that won't guarantee victory if gamers can be persuaded to hang on for the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 2.

Older gamers will remember a similar thing situation with Sega's Dreamcast, crippled when Sony convinced consumers to wait for a killer console rather than buy the first on the market.

Sony is also playing the hype game, with its Computer Entertainment division boss Chris Deering ruling out any chance of the PlayStation 3 launching in the next 18 months: "All I can really say about the PlayStation 3 is that it definitely won't launch in 2004." Bah!

But he had good news for handheld fans.

"Aside from games," he said, "our portable console PSP will play music and movies and carry a price more comparable to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance [around pounds 90]."

And what about the Xbox 2? Its launch date has recently been the subject of much debate after a well-respected Japanese newspaper insisted they had Microsoft chief exec, Steve Ballmer, on the record stating a 2006 release.

They then said it was a typo and should have read 2005.

The upshot is that the next-gen race is still nowhere near being decided; get the timing wrong and the loser might go the same way as Sega.