This is just a rumor, but according to VG247, the Xbox 360 is likely to take the top spot from the Wii this year in the US, while Media Create has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 has passed the Wii in Japan. Nintendo is set to announce a release date and price for the 3DS in Japan on September 29, and soon after we may be seeing a peek of the Wii’s inevitable successor.

In 2003, Nintendo spent $34 million dollars on research and development. By the time the Wii launched in 2006, that was up to $103 million. By 2007, it had more than tripled to $370 million in R&D. Certainly a good portion of that money was going toward the 3DS development, but it’s an awful lot to spend on a handheld gaming console, no matter how phenomenal it may be. Michael Pachter may have actually been right when he predicted WiiHD in 2011.