Earlier today, CNN reported that the successor to the Gameboy Advance would see a release sometime later this year. The story featured on CNN’s website quoted P.J. McNealy about his thoughts on the future of Nintendo’s popular product line. “We believe it is likely that the next version of the Game Boy Advance SP will ship as early as this holiday, ahead of most expectations of calendar year 2006.”
McNealy also predicted that the next generation handheld would be launched at a truly unique and unprecedented price-point. According to the CNN story the successor to the GBA would debut at a price of $100, while the current SP model would receive a price drop. McNealy foresees that the GBA SP’s price will fall to the $49.99 mark, while the cost of the DS would remain unaltered at $149.99.
The CNN story rationalizes the release of a 5th Nintendo handheld in the span of 3 years as a reaction to increased piracy of GBA games. The cartridge based GBA titles are said to be frequently pirated and sold on online sites such as Ebay.
The CNN article did not discuss the technical aspect of the next Gameboy, but they did speculate that it would feature a disc based medium, as well as be more powerful than the current product line. The implementation of a new handheld by Nintendo brings new meaning to their “Third Pillar” approach to their product offerings. Nintendo advertises their hardware as apart of a three tiered collection built of the GBA, GCN, and DS.
Rumors of a new Nintendo product in 2005 has been generated by online gaming site, Spong, whom claims that the next GBA will launch this year, while the DS will also be given full PDA software to distinguish itself as product in the eyes of the consumer.
IGN DS was able to discuss the reports with NOA, whom replied, “Game Boy continues to be a shining star in the video game industry with more than 176 million units sold worldwide,” stated Beth Llewelyn, senior director, public relations, Nintendo of America. “In 2004 alone we sold 10 million Game Boy Advance SPs in North America and sales were up 9% in January. Our newest hand-held game system, the Nintendo DS, has done extremely well and is on target to ship 6 million worldwide by March 31. There is always speculation on what the next Game Boy will be, however, at this time there are no announcements about a new Game Boy SP product.”
According to CNN, clarification of this fervently developing story could come as early as March 10th, at the annual Game Developers Conference in California. If a new Nintendo console is to be launched this year, than it would undoubtedly be debuted either at the upcoming GDC or at E3 in May.
The abundance of rumors surrounding the Kyoto based company is sure to increase in the coming weeks and months, as the industry heads into it’s most exciting time of the year. DS Advanced will bring you the latest news surrounding this story as it develops at GDC as well at E3 where we will be in attendance. Regardless of how this story unfolds, readers should look forward to a full report on both gaming conventions as they occur.
Portions of this story were taken from IGN DS as well as CNN.
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