Is Nintendo Planning to Launch a New DS?

Every so often a story breaks on a Friday or Saturday that just sets the message boards and forums abuzz with talk until someone can come into the office Monday morning and sort it all out. Such was the case this weekend, as Japanese news source Nikkei Net broke a story about a brand new Nintendo DS redesign.

The gaming blogs pounced, quickly latching onto the story and reporting on all the new capabilities said to be built into the new model, including a camera and music playback. Speculation ran wild that Nintendo was worried about the iPhone’s intrusion into the handheld market and Nintendo was trying to quickly reassert its dominance with a newer, fancier DS. Turns out there was nothing to get excited about after all.

While Nintendo’s initial reactions were little more than a stern no comment, the company has since added that they have no idea who Nekkei’s original source might be, as the newspaper never talked to Nintendo about the DS, redesigned or otherwise. Nintendo has released the following statement on the issue:

"The Nikkei newspaper wrote a recent story about a DS solely based upon their own research and speculation, without interviewing Nintendo. While Nintendo is always working on new hardware, we have not made any announcement about a DS and we cannot comment on the Nikkei story."

Further investigation shows that while Nekkei’s story is printed in a very matter-of-fact manner, there are no sources quoted in the original article. While it would appear impossible, it just may be the case that Nekkei made the whole thing up, highly unexpected for a publication such as theirs.

So that leaves us standing here wondering what exactly happened. All we know for sure is that even if Nintendo is planning to redesign the DS (which we firmly believe they are), this latest story is nothing more than conjecture with no source to back it. At this point, even if a new DS did emerge with a camera and music playback, it would be more coincidence than proof of Nekkei’s new-gathering prowess. Sounds like this rumor’s been shot in the head.

TGR Verdict: Rumor Killed