Nintendo 3DS outed by Japanese media pressure - Analyst

The past several years have seen leaks preempt major game announcements. One of the biggest happened just before last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, when a leaked video revealed the PSP Go three days before it was officially unveiled at Sony's press briefing. Microsoft saw something similar occur at the Consumer Electronic Show in January, when another leaked video preemptively confirmed the Project Natal motion-sensing system would arrive this year.

Now, M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon is claiming that last week's unveiling of the Nintendo 3DS was done in order to head off an unauthorized media expose. "Apparently, the Japanese press was all over it and talked with suppliers there and Nintendo just wanted to get out ahead by breaking the news to prevent a leak," he told CNBC.

The timing of the announcement had raised many eyebrows, as it came less than a week before the DSi XL launched in North America. Pidgeon believes the announcement may hurt sales of the super-sized handheld with consumers, especially since the 3DS will be shown off in just two and a half months at E3 2010. "Does it clash with the DSi XL? Yes it does," summed up Pidgeon.