Report: Re-Designed Nintendo DS Readied

Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson recently gave his perspective on the state of the industry in preview notes ahead of the holiday season, and said he believes that Nintendo will soon release another redesign of its DS handheld. "Our contacts indicate that a refreshed DS is complete," said Wilson, as noted by consumer news site GameSpot. Wilson said the redesigned unit "is thinner (it has no GBA port), has on-board storage, and larger screens." He noted, however that "we do not expect a revamped Wii or DS until sales begin to tail off in all three major geographies." Sales of the Nintendo DS have continued to top Japan's hardware charts for the past several weeks, eclipsing console sales by as much as two to three times. In the U.S., too, while the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii have outpaced sales of the handheld, the margin is still considerably thin, with September sales showing the handheld only just behind the Wii's 501,000 units at 495,800 sold for the month.