I'd have to say I think it's because their DS is doing so very well, I think they've hit on the right balance of gameplay vs technological capability with their DS hardware. It is with out doubt their greatest platform ever, if they refused to release a new handheld I'd probably guess that it just doesn't bring anything all that new to the table. It's probably just a graphics update or something like that, might bring it more in line with the power of the PSP. Nintendo were probably like, "so we're going to make our hand helds way more expensive to produce, so we can't make as much money on them, to give gamers better graphics, which if you look at the DS vs PSP war means nothing." Hmm lets stay with the DS.

What do you expect? The DS is doing too well to go with another platform. What does it matter what it would have been called? And the reason why it was canned is obvious. The DS is selling very well. A lot of games are in development for it right now and a new handheld would have to grab hold of DS momentum, slow it down, and then get ahead of it in order to be successful. Nintendo would be competing with themselves.



The proper time to introduce a new handheld would probably next year or the year after. Mention that one is in development so that current game development can slow down. Show specs and release it the year after when people are sick of the DS. Also, it would probably be DS compatible (to keep that crowd). Lets not forget to mention that any system beginning development now would be better than anything started years ago.



Bottom line, Nintendo sort of dug themselves into a hole with their systems being so successful. In order to get out of it they have to think long and hard on a follow up just as phenomenal.

I thought everyone knew about this.



And yeah, they were planning on maintaining both a DS and a Gameboy presence in the handheld market, but the DS was much more of a success than they had anticipated, and decided to just keep it at that.