Is It Time For a New DS?

Kris Erickson • Jan 17, 2010 • Comments ()

Nintendo may be preparing to launch a successor to the successful DS handheld console, according to some market analysts. Jesse Divinich from market research firm EEDAR thinks that an upgraded device is going to hit the market within the next 15 months. Even though the DS continues to sell exceptionally well, Divinich believes that publishers are concerned about the age of the console as well as the ease of piracy on the machine.

"Many publishers including Sega, Capcom, and now Ubisoft have all expressed that they may be reducing their exposure to Nintendo's consoles, which will likely lead to heavy declines in both hardware and software sales for the Nintendo DS console", the analyst said.

Does this mean a simple hardware revision or a brand new console? Signs suggest it might be a real successor rather than a basic upgrade. In between the DSi and DSi XL, Nintendo may have tapped out all of the upgrade potential in the current device.

The DSi offers pretty much everything we could ask for in terms of features, which include multimedia support, camera, and on-board memory. the only thing that could tempt us to upgrade from our current hardware would be a new machine that offered the same feature set but a considerably improved performance for better graphics and sound. 8GB of on-board flash storage would be nice, too.

Another possibility is that Nintendo could bring the DS and Wii lines closer together by incorporating some kind of motion sensor into the hand-held design.

Whatever Nintendo has planned, we are sure it will be exciting, and we hope that news arrives this year as analysts predict.

What's on your wishlist for a new improved Nintendo DS? Let us know in the comments below.