The Big N comment on yet another rumour doing the rounds, that of the DS "SP" re-design... and again neither confirm or deny it!

The rumours have been building that Nintendo is set to announce a re-design of the DS, just as they did with the Game Boy Advance SP. It's the exact same time of year that the SP was announced in, and under the same conditions - post-Christmas and New Year sales have crippled the DS' availability in Japan, just as they did for the GBA right before the SP was unveiled.

We've recently reported on various comments from the industry - Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu at the start of the month here, and just last week from the popular game importing website Lik-Sang Nintendo of America commented to IGN this morning, however, saying that was not yet the case:

Clearly, Nintendo DS continues to be one of the most popular and talked-about video game systems available.

Through 2005, some 13 million units have sold worldwide. Nintendo is always looking for ways to improve its games and systems, but we have nothing to announce at this time.

How long "this time" means - be it days, weeks or months - it's almost certain a re-design is coming. It seems Nintendo, however, just isn't yet keen to tell us when.