Nintendo signals death of Game Boy

It may have occupied the sweaty palms of nearly 200 million more people than the Nintendo DS, but it seems the Game Boy family has finally reached the end of the lineage.

Speaking in an interview with news agency Reuters today, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata said: "I would have a second thought about using our resources on what would be the next generation of Game Boy Advance, considering the strong support DS is now enjoying."

The original Game Boys arrived in 1989. As well as the first, it's also the most successful pocket gaming format of all time, with over 120 million sold. Follow-ups like the Game Boy Color and the Game Boy Advance all sold well (Nintendo has shifted 70 million GBAs in its various forms), but issues such as under-whelming software for the Game Boy Color and a dodgy screen in early versions of the GBA meant they never really captured the world's imagination like the original.

Last year's final addition to the Game Boy family, the Game Boy Micro, looked a bit of an afterthought compared to the innovation already promised by the Nintendo DS; the Micro was also the first Game Boy to eschew backwards compatibility with older Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. A warning sign perhaps that things were getting confusing for Nintendo.

Still, there will be no sudden funeral for the Game Boy Advance.

"The Japanese game market is now evolving around DS," said Iwata. "We don't need to do something that will pour cold water on the situation."