Hmmmm...
Part of my doubts that the 5th Gen will be a DSi, or heaven forbid DS2 exclusive. It just wouldn't be like Nintendo to do something like that, to exclude 1/2+ of the population who still own older models such as the DS Lite or DS Phat.
People would complain about having to spend 200+ Dollars on a new console just so they could play it. That isn't incredibly good marketing practice, and is more likely to cause people to shun away from the system (Such as when the PS3 was announced to retail for 599 US Dollars)
The DS has been around now for over 5 years... and assuming the DS2 comes out around the end of this year, it will have been around 6 years. In that time, nobody twisted anyone's arm to go out and buy DSLites, DSis or DSi XLs. Regardless of how many iterations of the DS have been released, the fact remains that we've now been playing games on the same basic handheld unit for 5 years and it's time for a change. Personally, I didn't buy a DS until the DSLite came out (due to the god-awful design of the Phat), and didn't bother buying a DSi because it lacked the slot-2. I'll likely buy a DSi eventually for collecting purposes rather than playing, either when there's enough of a price drop or some special edition DSi comes out that I like the look of. It it does end up that you need a DS2 to play the new Pokemon games, though, I'll have no issue with buying one. The DSLite/DSi/XL were optional purchases if you already had a DS; anyone who bought one must've known what could possibly happen... especially buying a handheld years and years into its lifespan.
The GBA was replaced by the DS after less than 4 years on the market... the GBC lasted only 2.5 years before being ousted by the GBA. If the DS gets 6 years, then that's more than enough time IMO.
QUOTE(Rydian @ Feb 16 2010, 04:11 PM) And it was said 5th generation will be on DS.