Wild speculation surrounds new Nintendo hardware plans (News)

GamePro staff, GamePro

26/08/2008 04:42:00

Nintendo isn't talking about its new hardware, so leave it to the analysts to conjure up some fresh speculation on when a new DS might arrive.

The question of the hour in regards to Nintendo portables today is this: Will the Big N announce a new DS model or entirely new portable at the Tokyo Game Show, or not?

An interview with Enterbrain head honcho Hirokazu Hamamura appeared to say that yes, this is the case, but no timeframe was given. He also speculated a hardware change was due because there is "an average of two years between handheld releases."

Of course, Enterbrain the company quickly came out to counter the alleged claims of its own boss, saying "no such statement or announcement was made by the president" and that he was "merely speculating on the future of the DS and looking forward to E3, Leipzig and TGS."

Additionally, if you're remember GamePro's coverage of Mr. Hamamura in the past, you know he has a tendency to be completely wrong about Nintendo's portable plans.

Game site Gameplayer followed Hamamura's revelation up with this tidbit from Nintendo PR flak Rob Saunders, who said "[Nintendo's] hardware development team is always at work on the next product after we launch one piece of hardware. It is usual that a new model will be brought to the market when we cannot offer new ideas with the current model."

The remarks were similar to those made by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in the wake of the E3 conference last month. He also confirmed new hardware was under development at Nintendo HQ, but dismissed any further speculation on the matter, explaining that any hardware company is always hard at work on new tech as soon as the current model goes out the door.

If any announcement is forthcoming from the notoriously tight-lipped Nintendo, Credit Suisse analyst Jay Defibaugh said it will be fairly soon due to a variety of boring business-level factors.

"Nintendo will need to announce what it intends for the future before the next 18 months, when we start obsessing about what the next-generation machines will look like," he said.

Of course, Nintendo has gone on record saying it does not believe in traditional console life cycles, like Sony's 10-year PS3 plan, for example, and is content to ride the Wii and DS train until it is no longer making them billions of dollars every year.

We seriously doubt that the company, which made more money with its two consoles last month than all its competitors combined, cares one lick about what Hamamura or Defibaugh have to say about its hardware plans. We shall see, though, won't we?