Alright I know its old news that Nintendo officially confirmed it is working on new hardware. Infact I remember when Wii was unvieled in full that Miyamoto said the next console would support HD, something that indicated the next console was already in development. Then of course there is Nintendo's typical five year life cycle. Both Nintendo DS and Wii are entering there final years of the five year cycle. So the question that comes to mind is when will Nintendo unviel its next platform, and what platform will be unvieled next?

A new handheld? Its been almost six years since the DS broke into the marketplace. That is over a year longer then Nintendo's typical five year life cycle. Also Nintendo's handhelds have traditionally all had three models. DSi has rounded that up. With the PSPGo now a failure and a new PSP expected any time now it would be very likely that the new handheld would be unvieled any time now. Could a new handheld be unvieled at this years E3?

A new home platform? The Wii is going to be concluding its five year life cycle in 2011. If Nintendo sticks to that life cycle a new home platform should be revealed either this E3 or next E3. Already Iwata and Miyamoto have indicated the next home platform is coming close to realization. Iwata says the next platform will revolutionalize the industry and that it will even surpass Natal in evolving the way we play games. If such revolutionary hardware is already underway is it unreasonable to think we might see Nintendo's next console this E3?

Now the question also poised is will Nintendo reveal their new hardware at E3? Or could it be unvieled at GDC or another conferance? Or will there be no new hardware announcement this year. Will Nintendo hold off until 2011?

On the 24th Feb.

I don't think it's wise at all to unveil new hardware just yet. There is still a lot of untapped potential for the Wii, especially in terms of motion plus/balance board/vitality sensor games. End of 2012 should be the absolute earliest Nintendo launches its new console.

Handheld cycle has never been a typical 5 year situation for Nintendo. One could argue that Game Boy to Game Boy Color was as much upgrade as DS to DSi. That way it would make 3 consoles with several revisions since the 1989.

I think it is up to Nintendo if they want to make the DSi market bigger or if they want a handheld with completable and maybe some features that can last a few years.

After their opponents announces a credible threat or the Wii or the DS drops from first place in weekly sales. Neither's gonna happen in the next couple of years.

you're being fooled by the viral marketers and industry insiders.. they're trying to create Nintendo disappointmenton, and it's gonna work.

but you have to ask yourself, how many times will you allow yourself to be fooled? None of the "hyping" was made by Nintendo, it's entirely made up by other people and their agendas.

Perhaps you should stop listening to them so much and start looking at the facts.

I think maybe a new handheld could be in order soon.....but a new home console? Absolutely not. Just as many have said, the Wii still has lots of potential. Have you seen the Red Steel 2 videos?

I don't want to start anything, but honestly my Wii is a 07' model and is still fairly new for the lack of use of it.

So I don't feel ready to upgrade yet to another new Nintendo console..

While my -Xbox 360 looks more like Frankenstein ..I replaced the Dvd drive in place for a pc fan that I installed inside on top of the heat-sink to keep the graphic chip cool and the DVD drive now sits secure outside on top of the case ..

-Not to mention a cut out hole on the back of the plastic case and the inside metal grill for better air flow output and on top of the case next to the dvd drive there's another cut out directly above the CPU heat sink where fan blows fresh air in.

it looks freaking ugly but it runs.. lol

Right. Nintendo does not have to do anything yet except working on getting games sold and making games.

And really, why would Nintendo risk starting anew with a follow-up to DS, which means a large initial production cost before the process becomes more streamlined, a costly marketing push, starting from zero again and even competing with the older DS when DS is the best selling console of this generation and one of the highest selling consoles in history? Especially when Nintendo has just given DS even more life with DSi.

I think even announcing new DS hardware for next year could really hurt Nintendo. So logically I would say no new handheld announcement until at least next year.

With Wii, maybe they could do a DSi type of upgrade which might or might not include HD, HDD and 3D. But they don't have to do anything there either and a real follow-up to Wii would be really stupid right now.

But true, Nintendo has pressure on them to create new hardware and maybe being able to deploy it fast if in need. The future will tell what's up.

"Five year cycle"? LoooL.