Rumour: Nikkei Trendy say 3DS Lite is coming soon, thickness and battery improved

Its only the forth day of the year and its already rumour time. Japanese publication Nikkei Trendy has published an article in its latest issue proclaiming the 3DS Lite is coming soon and will have ‘improved thickness… [and] runtime’. In properly translated talk, this most-likely means the system will be thinner and have a better battery life than the current one. The magazine doesn’t say much more than that however and it doesn’t cite its sources and is most likely speculation on the magazines behalf. The same issue also has a rumour about Monster Hunter heading to the Vita.

It is important to note Nikkei Trendy is different to the well-known newspaper Nikkei which has a better track record with video game rumours. if any record at all. Nikkei Trendy is a magazine for businessmen covering a wide range of topics. Nikkei (the newspaper) has correctly identified the Wii U before release, a new PSP (Vita) with 3G and an OLED screen as well as the move for Sony to make a PlayStation Phone. Even further back they caught onto the new Wii Fit now known as Wii Fit Plus. The newspaper’s track record isn’t entirely clean, though.

If the 3DS Lite is indeed a reality it would make it the fastest revision to hardware that Nintendo has ever done. The DS Lite was released less than 18 months after the original DS. The 3DS hasn’t even been on the market for 12 months yet and has only just gotten into the swing of things in terms of sales and games so if there is a new one on the way there will be even less incentive to buy the current model.