The proper successor to the Nintendo DS will be announced "within 8 months", analyst group EEDAR has predicted.
According to the company's latest NPD sales report, even though the current Nintendo DS posted a record year in 2009, Nintendo still has plenty of reasons to make the early switch to Nintendo DS2.
"Nintendo has always had a controlling stake in the handheld market, despite facing numerous competitors, and EEDAR believes one of the biggest reasons for Nintendo's success in the handheld market is their ability to remove opportunity gaps for competitors to enter," it says.
"Nintendo's transition from the GBA to the DS, a year earlier than anticipated, was a brilliant strategy to remove any upper hand the Sony PSP could have by being first to market."
Piracy also continues to be an issue, it claims: "not just for Nintendo, but for its third-party publishers as well. Whilst the release of the DSi has slowed down piracy, that slow down will only be temporary as hackers have already managed to bypass the new security systems built into the hardware.
"Additionally, 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.
"We believe that due to the aging technology, the possibility of new competitors in 2011, a decline in publisher support and piracy, Nintendo will launch a successor to the DS within the next 15 months, and likely announce such in the next eight months."
You have to admit, EEDAR's analysis makes some very good points. We for one weren't expecting the Nintendo DS to turn up at that Los Angeles press conference all those years ago, so who's to say Nintendo won't surprise us again?
While we're on the subject, yesterday Nintendo announced that its very nice Nintendo DSi XL will be released in the UK this March. Read our Nintendo DSi XL review for the verdict.
Interesting. I wonder if it will still keep the clam shell style of the DS and offer backwards compatability, or if it will be more alike the iPhone and have tilt control?
I just wish they'd bring out a GBA2 alongside the DS. Not that I have anything against the dual screens and a touch screen but it'd be nice to have a Nintendo version of PSP with decent graphics and pad/button controls only.
Sounds like their decision is well-founded. Hacking will always prevail, taking less or more time than other things so what Nintendo's strategy is has me curious as much as the potential design. The only given is a clamshell design.
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