E3: Iwata Skeptical On Need For New GBA Hardware

Talking to major news agency Reuters at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles this week, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata commented on the company's overall hardware plans, indicating that he did not think that Nintendo planned to launch any new Game Boy Advance-related hardware, due to the DS' success. He stated bluntly: "I would have a second thought about using our resources on what would be the next generation of Game Boy Advance, considering the strong support DS is now enjoying", following it up by noting: "The Japanese game market is now evolving around DS. We don't need to do something that will pour cold water on the situation." In other Iwata news, according to an IGN report, Iwata gave an initial estimate of lifetime sales for the Nintendo Wii in a statement to the Japanese press during E3, indicating that sales of "two to three times that of GameCube is a possibility." Since the GameCube has sold close to 20 million units, according to recent estimates by analysts such as Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan, this would put the Wii at 40 to 60 million units in total. Returning to the Reuters interview, Iwata also addressed the Wii launch itself, noting of the amount of launch titles needed when the console debuts in Q4 of this year: "I am aware that we cannot win user support by offering only a few titles at the launch like we did for Nintendo 64 and GameCube ... We want to make it a double digit and we are able to do that."