March 27^th, 2002 (12:00am) - In an interview with IGNCube, Perrin Kaplan (NOA’s VP of Corporate Affairs) and Jim Merrick spill some very interesting tidbits.

Confirming one rumor we’ve heard, Sega’s Phantasy Star Online is finished. Nintendo’s Modem is finished. So why aren’t they on shelves?

Jim tells them that Nintendo "would like to launch with more than one title." They don’t want the success of the peripheral to fall squarely on Sega’s shoulders. They do recognize the need for more titles, and at the same time that to delay the title too much longer would be "doing a disservice to Sega by not releasing it." They claim that the delay is because the "barrier to entry" for PSO would be very high when you have to buy a piece of hardware for it. When you have multiple titles, you can amortize the cost across the games.(Amortize means to spread the cost. $30 for one game, or $5 apiece across six titles.)

It should be noted that while the details were about the Modem in regards to PSO, that it likely refers to the Broadband (Ethernet) adapter as well.

Also of note: Microsoft is not buying Rare to Nintendo’s knowledge. Duh. here’s more in this interview, and we suggest that all of you with Insider accounts give it a read.