Over the last few days, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, that the DS's successor will feature advanced graphics as well as motion sensing. Soon after, Nintendo's senior director of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta dismissed those comments and said that they were just a "misinterpretation".
Today, the reputable Japanese newspaper defended the accuracy of its report and asserted that it was a direct quotation of Satoru's comments.
In the meanwhile, EEDAR's Jesse Divnich expressed his belief that Nintendo will no doubt announce the debated DS successor within the next 8 months and release it in less than 15.
"Even though the Nintendo DS posted a record year in 2009, EEDAR expects Nintendo to make an official announcement on the DS2 within the next eight months," Divnich wrote.
"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. 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."
Another reason for Nintendo to release a new handheld platform is piracy. "Piracy continues to be an issue, 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."
"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."