New Nintendo DS ‘Extreme’ unveiled at E3 to fight Sony PSP?
By Dave Parrack
The Nintendo DS is the biggest selling console around the world at this moment in time, so the announcement of a new model is bound to be big news… is it is indeed true.
The original Nintendo DS came out in 2004 to much critical acclaim. Then the new and improved DS Lite made an appearance in 2006. Which obviously means the DS Liter, or ‘Extreme’ should be due sometime this year…
At least that is according to Hirokazu Hamamura, president of games-magazine publisher Enterbrain who last week forecast that a new and improved Nintendo DS will be announced at this year’s E3 gaming conference, held in July.
While Hamamura hasn’t cited any sources for these bold claims, and could be going on nothing more than just the timing of the last two updates for the console, basically every two years, he could also have inside knowledge, so this rumour has some legs.
Before my colleague Jonathan Schlaffer gets too excited however, even if speculation does prove correct, the new Nintendo handheld won’t be the all singing, all dancing, Wii-alike that he and many others are wishing for. Instead it’s likely to just be another slight upgrade.
The likely name of this updated DS? Well, how about Liter or Extreme, which are two of the names being bandied about on other gaming websites.
The problem is that the Nintendo DS is pretty much spot on as it is, so where do you go from there? It doesn’t need to be any smaller, lighter or more comfortable to hold, so they’re all pointless improvements to make.
There is speculation that the new Extreme (that’s what I’m choosing to call it as Liter is a terrible name), would do away with backwards compatibility for the Gameboy Advance, to allow it to make become smaller and lighter, but I’d rather have the ability to play my old GBA games on it thank you very much.
Until E3 comes around, we won’t know if this is fact or fiction, but with the Sony PSP generally outselling the Nintendo DS in Japan this year so far, the chances that Nintendo are looking at releasing something new are high.
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April 18th, 2008
no the biggest selling console in the world right now is ps2
June 28th, 2008
PS2 record will soon be beat by the PLAYSTATION 3. PlayStation 2 is one of the greatest most beloved video game console ever made.
July 12th, 2008
naw ps2 is done with…. soon the Wii will surpass it. PS3 has probably been one of the worst gaming systems so far, but things might soon pick up for it because of MGS4 and other PS fan favorites. The Wii looks to be bringing back that old school nintendo flavor mixed with both super nintendo and n64, thats why its doing so well unlike the gamecube which got maimed by the ps2 and xbox… Its going back to its roots hell look what they did with the zelda and mario galaxy game, shades of n64 style…. And the biggest selling console is DS and Wii right behind it…..