Not content with having already seriously grown the games market globally in the past few years, Nintendo is confident its new DSi handheld will fuel even more industry expansion.

Today the format-holder announced the third-generation of the DS will arrive in Europe on April 3rd. The North American launch is on April 5th. The handheld will be sold alongside the current second-generation DS Lite.

The DS has already sold close to 100m units worldwide - and over 9m in the UK, but there's plenty more scope for the device.

UK GM David Yarnton told us that the format-holder thinks the widening of the platform will likewise grow the market further, too.

“Retail is tough for everyone at the moment, but having a new product is a good opportunity for all of us. It’s the only piece of new games hardware coming out this year, so is perfect for helping drive sales," he said.

In fact, Yarnton says the DSi can capture even more diverse demographics.

“We expect some people will upgrade, but we also anticipate that we’ll win over people who were still undecided on DS – the extra features will help convince them. There’s an extra incentive.

“There are 21m households in the UK – each one could conceivably have a DS. Or even more than one DS. That doesn’t mean that we’ll sell multiple units into every family and sell over 60m in the UK alone – we don’t think that will happen - but the numbers are still very buoyant. This is uncharted territory for the games industry as far as we are concerned.

“The functions of the device really open the platform up to more consumers – it gives the DS unlimited potential.”