Enterbrain denies president mentioned new DS
<i>Famitsu</i> publisher claims its chief never made widely quoted remark about possibility of new DS at E3 '08.
Last week, the spin of the Nintendosphere sped up precipitously with rumors of a new DS model. The speculation stemmed from a Bloomberg Japan report that played up a seemingly offhand remark by Hirokazu Hamamura (pictured), president of Famitsu magazine publisher Enterbrain. The article said that, when asked if Nintendo would unveil a new DS at the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit in July, the executive responded: "I think there is the possibility."
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After several days of second-hand accounts of Nintendo denials--denials the publisher's US reps still could not confirm as of press time--Enterbrain has stepped up with its own statement. According to a press release obtained by popular game blog Kotaku, the Tokyo-based publishing house and industry-research firm is accusing Bloomberg Japan of concocting its Hamamura quote out of thin air.
"It has been reported in the media that our president, Hirokazu Hamamura, made comments at the game industry seminar we hosted on April 11 stating that 'the possibility exists that an announcement will be made this summer regarding a new model of Nintendo DS.' However, no such announcement was made by the president."
Bloomberg Japan's quote appears to stem from a mistranslation of some typically nuanced Japanese comments made by Hamamura. Enterbrain claims he actually told seminar attendees to "continue to pay attention to the direction in which the DS is headed," before saying that he had "great expectations this year for E3, where many new announcements regarding games are made." The company goes on to say Hamamura made no mention of a DS shortage in the US and EU, as Bloomberg Japan had reported.
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