Nintendo of Japan carefully denies redesign rumors

by JC Fletcher { Apr 16th 2008 at 10:30AM }

Nintendo of Europe has already officially denied the rumor that a new version of the DS would debut at this year's E3. Possibly due to the fact that the most recent rumor originates from a credible source (Enterbrain's Hirokazu Hamamura), Nintendo of Japan has also chimed in, in a statement given to Yukan Fuji.

Nintendo told the website that "We cannot comment on the specifics of what will be announced at E3, but at the very least there won't be anything like what Mr. Hamamura suggested, so we would like to clearly deny this." The statement continued "We're having a hard time understanding what kind of evidence [Mr. Hamamura] had for saying this."

Conspiracy theorists can read Nintendo's aggressive denial as confirmation, of course. They didn't say there wouldn't be any new hardware, just that there won't be exactly what Mr. Hamamura suggested. Which means that the new hardware, if it exists, is something other than a minor upgrade.

Would Nintendo really have such a hard time figuring out why Hamamura would predict a new hardware revision? It's been over two years since the last one, and if history is any indication, Nintendo is due to drop a new system on all the people who just bought one.

Gallery: Nintendo DS mockups

Tags: e3, mockup, nintendo-of-japan, redesign

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Brad Mecoli @ Apr 16th 2008 11:13AM

"really have such -->a a

hvnlysoldr @ Apr 16th 2008 2:26PM

I wish I learned how to make lunch boxes

Jamie @ Apr 16th 2008 3:41PM

Scary stuff :S I was gonna try and snaffle a gold ds off of ebay, maybe I should wait... darn you nintendo!

Niz @ Apr 16th 2008 9:36PM

i cant imagine why they need to, i can see the DS lite's existance because when i got the DS i was thinking damn this thing is an ugly brick ,when upgraded to the lite, I though okay now they've got it right. :)

BUT one thing i always thought is that the screens are apart and in some games the screens should be together, (some games account for the gap but most dont) so i think they might make a DS where the screens are together or the top screen can slide to join with the bottom, so it can be optional to have the screens together depending on the game.

Matdredalia @ Apr 16th 2008 10:07PM

I don't know how "at the very least there won't be anything like what Mr. Hamamura suggested" translates to confirming anything. They didn't say "there won't be something similar" to what Mr. Hamamura said, they said straight up that there won't be ANYTHING like that at all.

That says to me "We've got something coming, but it's not a new design of the DS at all."

EdZ @ Apr 17th 2008 1:56PM

If there is a hardware revision, my guess is it'll sacrifice the GBA port to reduce the size. If it were entirely new, there would have been at least some rumour of it, and if it's another redesign then there's not much they can do to make it smaller while keeping the GBA port functional.