Nintendo rubbishes new DS claims

By Robert Purchese Published 14 April, 2008

"Purely rumour and speculation."

Nintendo has told Eurogamer that claims a new DS model will be unveiled at E3 this year are "purely rumour and speculation".

Word spread after Enterbrain boss Hirokazu Hamamura said he thought there was a "possibility" of Nintendo producing a fresh iteration of the handheld at the event. Enterbrain publishes Famitsu magazine.

And the evidence stops there.

The Nintendo DS originally appeared here in March 2005, before the much prettier DS Lite was released in June 2006.

The handheld has gone on to sell over 65 million units around the world.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (16) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • CallousB #1 4 years ago

    Why bother asking them? it's not as if they are going to admit it.

  • quantumsheep #2 4 years ago

    About time for an update then?

  • penhalion #3 4 years ago

    Nintendo has told Eurogamer that claims a new DS model will be unveiled at E3 this year are "purely rumour and speculation".

    No it isn't.....

  • MuppetThumper #4 4 years ago

    care to elaborate then penhalion?

  • penhalion #5 4 years ago

    @MuppetThumper

    Not with an NDA hanging over my head no.....

    I will say that I doubt it will appear at E3 though, so that part may be true.

  • yupyup #6 4 years ago

    If it's Nintendo Europe, don't even bother asking. They were unaware of the DS Lite revision a day before it was announced ^_^

  • penhalion #7 4 years ago

    Bit of background.

    As devs we get notices from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo on a regular basis. Some include NDAs while others are just general dev stuff that no-one but a programmer would be even remotely interested in. As a side note to this, if you develope nintendo stuff, you get told to "expect" announcements and "invited" to attend meetings.

    I can't tell you what they are planning but, it's definitely new hardware of some kind. Currently we've got the old can't discuss any technical info we get style NDA hanging. They HAVEN'T told us what this new thing is so in that regard no-one but nintendo know.

    I will say that as I don't know anyone who is developing for a new nintendo platform I'm fairly sure that the hardware isn't ready for public consumption (hence why I'm sceptical about an E3 showing). Of course they could just have distributed hardware to their nintendo only japanese developers. We do 360 and some PS3 work too so maybe we simply don't qualify for an early taster.

  • Ryze #8 4 years ago

    ... so please don't stop buying DSs in anticipation! Pretty please!!!

  • elysrum #9 4 years ago

    I just hope the next iteration supports 802.11g. b only was my only gripe with the DS. Other then that it was almost perfect.

  • Ryze #10 4 years ago

    @elysrum

    battery life.

    The PSP doesn't support g, either.

    Why would you need more than 11Mbps on the DS anyway?

  • peterfll #11 4 years ago

    Difficult to imagine where one would take the DS next? Lighter, thinner, brighter? Backup RAM - what?

  • Bitkari #12 4 years ago

    I would be shocked if Nintendo did not release a new model DS this year.

    This model would have to have on-board storage (perhaps available as a slot 2 upgrade for Original DS and DS Lite models), and the usual cosmetic improvements.

    Putting storage onto the device would really open up its potential, especially as a networked device. The DS has always focussed on utility over sheer horsepower, and this, to me, would be the next feature that it would need to add to really extend the longevity of the platform.

  • quantumsheep #13 4 years ago

    Well, they could make it as thin as an iPod touch I guess? Get rid of the GBA b/c? Add on-board storage?

    Lots of tweaks for sure!

  • TheNinkyNonk #14 4 years ago

    Nintendo re-hashing dated hardware? Surely not!

  • Killerbee #15 4 years ago

    The DS is hardly "dated" though - it's not even old for a console at just over three years on the market.

    I wonder if this is something completely different in the handheld market, not designed to replace the DS. Maybe a new Gameboy? If it is a new generation of DS hardware, I can't really see much that they can alter with the form factor - the Lite is pretty much perfect. Perhaps on board storage, a built-in browser and some other extra odds and sods might be on the cards.

  • Davemanz #16 4 years ago

    If it's an entirely new system and not just an update to the one we've got now I can see it being a serious problem...developers won't want two different Nintendo handhelds to make games for. Neither will consumers. Unless Ninty is killing off the DS, which is about the stupidest move they could possibly make...I doubt this is an entirely new handheld.