Nintendo President Satoru Iwata questions the need to bring out new hardware every five years.

With video-game hardware cycles typically lasting five years, Iwata was apparently asked at Nintendo's recent Q3 financial results briefing on the whereabouts of a successor the DS. Iwata disagreed with the notion of a new handheld being needed yet, saying there was plenty of ideas still to be made for the current machine.

Commenting on the video-game "war", he said that:

"We long for a new weapon whenever we cry that we cannot fight anymore with the current weapons. But today's situation is such that we are not desperate for any new weapons at all."

"We are always studying and working on what the new hardware must become in the future, but we are also monitoring changes in circumstances in order to act flexibly. Also, since Nintendo's hardware engineers and software creators are always communicating closely, only when both teams agree that it is time to challenge the market with new hardware that we will launch it. So, it is not a correct observation that we are having any trouble deciding on the launch timing of the next hardware."

He questioned the need for rigid hardware cycles in the future, saying he wanted to wait for the kind of hardware that will "change entertainment completely," rather than just an updated version of a current model. Getting something ready now to launch four years down the line on a specific date, regardless of future changes in the industry and the market, was too inflexible, he said.

Iwata finished by giving an insight into how he saw the future of the DS through the next few years. New services would be offered through the DS (the rumoured Game Boy Virtual Console, perhaps?). "Such services should contribute to making DS an actively used hardware and, also, to make the leap from one DS per household to one DS per individual."