Nintendo is busy dreaming up new handheld tech, but it isn't going to be a hardware revision for 3DS - it's for the next-generation of Nintendo's portable systems. In a recent interview with IGN, Shigeru Miyamoto was asked whether there would be a similar 'XL' redesign for 3DS as successfully released for the original Nintendo DS. He replied:

"I really feel like I'm satisfied with the 3DS hardware as it is. I feel like it's the best for this generation. What we're thinking about right now is probably going to be for a future generation of handheld."

Above: The existing hardware's 'best', apparently. Now if they could just decide on the colour...

Don't jump to the conclusion that 3DS is going to be superceded any time soon, though. Remember, Nintendo itself said at E3 that Wii U development began as soon as Wii launched, so a new handheld is hardly going to be formed, finalised and produced overnight. But it is surprising that a hardware revision should be denied so flatly, especially as it's happened so frequently in Nintendo's past.

Miyamoto reportedly then went on to play down the need for a second analogue stick built into the device, pointing to the gyroscope feature as a way to accommodate any need for more analogue aiming. We would have pointed to DS Metroid's use of the stylus also, but hey - we're not Shigeru Miyamoto, so what do we know?

Still, it does make us wonder what the premise for the next Nintendo handheld is in Miyamoto's mind right now. Three screens? Holograms? Or maybe a headset-style viewer that you look into to view 3D images... oh yeah, they've done that one.