You heard of the rumors doing the rounds after the chief of Enterbrain, Hirokazy Hamamura made a statement recently about the possibility of a new Nintendo DS lite that is going to be revealed.

However, there was a firm denial from the Nintendo camp about it and has specifically stated that there wouldn’t be any such thing happening.

According to the sources:

“We cannot comment on the specifics of what will be announced at E3, but at the very least there won’t be anything like what Mr. Hamamura suggested, so would like to clearly deny this. We’re having a hard time understanding what kind of evidence [Mr. Hamamura] had for saying this,” said Nintendo Japan’s head of PR in a press statement.”

Nintendo’s denial would appear to have like hurling a bucket of cold water at hamamura’s prediction, but the prediction is not bad after all, given the fact that the DS lite so popular

This is still largely unsubstantiated and yet too exciting to pass off as a rumor online. World-wide, the Nintendo DS fans are all hyped up about the possibility of getting their hands on to the a new handheld console at the gaming expo E3.

Apparently, it is being rumored now that the Nintendo will unveil the next-generation DS at E3 2008 this summer, two years after the launch of the DS Lite and four years after the original DS launched.

However, the actual data isn’t here and the web is rife with speculation. Here’s a report from 1up.com:

Bloomberg Japan reports that Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Japanese magazine publisher Enterbrain (parent company of Famitsu), has stated that he believes Nintendo will show a new model of the Nintendo DS at the E3 Media Summit this July (via Shacknews).

Since this report comes via second-hand translation of a Japanese story, there are a couple of key things that aren’t entirely clear. For one, it’s hard to say whether Hamamura was merely speculating on what may happen or if he has any sort of information he’s basing this on. Also unclear is whether he means another update to the current DS, like the DS Lite, or if he means the next generation of the DS hardware (Nintendo DS 2, if you will).
When Bloomberg Japan contacted Nintendo, they were evidently told Nintendo was unable to comment at the time. With the rate at which DSes burn through retail, both in Japan and in North America, it’s hard to imagine Nintendo would be readying its successor already. A new model wouldn’t be out of the realm of their track record (Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance SP, Game Boy Advance Micro, DS Lite…), but for now, it’s better to regard this one with healthy skepticism until more concrete info surfaces.

It is going to be a fest if this is correct information – there are loads of takers and better things to come our way then.