RSSReport: Nintendo DSi on its way April 4
By Tim Conneally | Published January 14, 2009, 12:45 PM
Nintendo's third incarnation of its popular DS touchscreen handheld game system went on sale in Japan on November 1 with no announcement of worldwide availability. Various reports have pegged US launch for early November.
IGN says "multiple sources close to Nintendo," have pegged the DSi's release in the United States in early April, likely on the fourth.
The DSi takes the design of the DS Lite, drops the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot, adds two 640 x 480 cameras, a side-mounted SD slot, slightly increases the screen size, and features the DSi Shop, an online store for downloadable DSi content. It will retail for $179 in the United States, approximately the same as it does in Japan currently.
Japanese site Media Create keeps a weekly sales chart, and the Nintendo DSi has repeatedly topped the list since its November release. Sales from December 31 to January 6, for example, hit 182,518. By contrast, Sony's PlayStation Portable moved 157,088, making it the second highest selling video game system in Japan.
The carts such as R4DS and similar do not work on the DSi, you will get an on screen message warning when you try to use them. I wouldn't be surprised if the new WiFi feature tried to report this back to Nintendo if you are connected to a wireless network.
My advice is keep your regular DS, how many times are you actually going to use the camera(s), plus no GBA slot for games like Guitar Hero On Tour that have the peripherals.
The DSi is damage control as Nintendo knows that some crazy number like 80% of all DS owners have a MicroSD cart. You can play movies, listen to MP3's with a virtual iPod complete with scroll wheel and download every game known to man for free with homebrew carts.
I'm sure you will see a cart very soon but they can update firmware over WiFi to block them now. Smart move on Nintendo's part.
The standard DS will become more valuable after April.
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All I want to know is...Can I hack it as easily as my old DS?
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