Here are some interesting rumours that should excite fans of portable gaming. Nintendo released the DSi just this year, but already rumours are circulating that a brand new DS is in the works. Gossip has surfaced concerning a new DS generation, “DS2″, apparently a complete overhaul with some serious power courtesy of the Zune HD processor.

Nvidia has allegedly won a contract to provide Nintendo’s DS2 with Tegra chips, replacing the current DS’ processors with something a bit stronger. The new DS will also be backwards compatible, something Nintendo’s handhelds have always been a master of.

The biggest part of the rumours is that the DS2 could be arriving as early as neext year, which is a let down for all of those who shelled out for a new DSi. Whatever the status is on a new DS, Nintendo’s sure to keep their cards close to their chest for now. Though DS2 sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it?

SCEA’s John Koller has just confirmed that the PS2 will soon drop to drop below $100 in the US, proving recent rumours to be true.

“Today I’m excited to talk about another milestone in PlayStation 2’s lifespan. For the first time ever, PlayStation 2 will be offered at a price point under $100 (that’s $99.99 MSRP, to be exact), starting April 1,” said the firm’s director of hardware marketing in a statement.

Koller pointed out that the machine’s library of games will hit nearly 1,900 this year (of course, how many of these are actually any good is another question entirely…), and pointed out how PlayStation consoles outstrip the life-span of most otherconsole.

“In the gaming industry, the typical lifecycle for a console is around five years, but because we build each of our platforms for a large and diverse consumer base, we design our platforms differently,” he said.

“With the original PlayStation and now PlayStation 2, we’ve proven that consumers can rely on our platforms for their gaming and entertainment needs for at least a decade.”

No price is expected in the UK.

In a move that’s a bit of a change to the normal process, Nintendo have announced that it intends to raise the UK trade price of the Wii by £18-20, due to the recent depreciation of the pound.

“We are only – reluctantly – raising our trade price now to retailers due to unprecedented and sustained depreciation of the pound,” Nintendo told VG247 in a statement today.

“This is a problem brought about by extreme currency fluctuations that are a symptom of the global economic situation.”

It should be noted that it’s only the trade price that is being increased; whether to retail price of the machine sold is store goes up will be entirely at the discretion of the retailers.

EuroGamer is claiming to have even more details on the as-yet unannounced new iteration of the PSP, the PSP-4000.

Our development source today confirmed these reports, adding: “The screen is basically the same as the one in the 3000 – except it slides.” When ‘closed’, we were told, the screen won’t cover the entire face of the console, but the unit will be “significantly smaller in width” as a result.

With the console in its ‘closed’ state, most controls will be inaccessible. However, our source claims that games which use the shoulder buttons exclusively – such as LocoRoco – will be playable, as these inputs will still be accessible. It’s expected that the unit can also be used for media playback in this configuration.

All bets are that the worst kept secret in gaming history will be “unveiled” at this year’s E3. We’ll be keeping you posted.

Don’t get too excited by these images just yet – they are only independently created mockups… but they at least gives us some idea of what “sources” tell us are Sony’s plans for the next iteration of the PSP handheld, the PSP-4000 model.

Sony has been debunking rumours of plans for a PSP 2 for a while. Now we know why. The PSP-4000 will not be the PSP2, but a “complete aesthetic overhaul” of the existing handheld.

According to sources, the revamp will have a sliding front-screen, much like the image below. The new PSP model is currently rumoured for a 2009 release.

A mockup design of what the PSP-4000 may look like

Nintendo has announced that the Wii has sold over 8 million units in 2008, making it the largest home console seller in European history.

8.3 million is a 58% percent increase from the previous year, giving the Wii a total sales figure of up to 14.2 million units.

On the handheld side Nintendo has also shattered sales records. The DS sold over 11.2 million units in 2008, with a total sales figure of 31 million units as of today.

“The sales trend on both Wii and Nintendo DS, hardware and software during 2008 shows that more and more people in Europe are enjoying video games as part of their daily lives,” said Nintendo of Europe MD, Marketing and PR Laurent Fischer.

“This proves that Nintendo’s wish to expand the gaming population has strong potential in Europe.”

The Japanese video game market took another fall in 2008, according to Kotaku, much like it did in 2007… and the problem doesn’t look like it’s gonna disappear any time soon.

In 2008, the video game market pulled in a total of ¥582.61 billion, down from the ¥687.95 billion brought in during 2007. More noticably, hardware sales dropped from ¥327.41 billion to ¥250.5 billion. Software sales fared better, remaining about the same as they did in 2007.

So much for the gaming industry being recessing proof.

Recent figures from popular Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu have shown that the Japanese games market is still suffering badly, with figures having fallen by 21.6% in October compared to figures from the same time last year.

Hardware sales have dropped by 29.1%, whilst software sales have fallen by 14.9 percent.

The PlayStation Portable, interestingly enough, was the strongest performer in the region, thanks to the release of the redesigned PSP 3000 on October 16, which manages to sell over 267,000 units throughout the month of October.

The DS Lite on the other hand, has seen its hardware sales fall for the month in anticipation of the release of DSi.

It’s surprising to see just how quickly the tables can turn in this industry at times.