UPDATE: Nintendo has confirmed the DSi for North American release. However, Reggie says “As far as 2008 is concerned, the Nintendo DSi story is strictly Japan related.” We won’t see the DSi until “well into 2009,” because Nintendo believes there’s still a respectable market for the DS Lite, stateside.
At the Nintendo Fall Press Conference in Japan, company president Satoru Iwata has today unveiled the successor to the Nintendo DS. Featuring dual cameras, dual 3.25″ touchscreens, built-in browsers, built-in memory, an SD memory card slot, integrated digital distribution for DSi games and yes, music playback, the DSi will retail for 18900 yen (approx.$180 USD) on November 1st.
The DSi loses the GBA port, slimming down 12% to 2.6mm thick. Aside from minor changes to the speaker design and the obvious addition of cameras, the device looks identical to the DS Lite.
According to our source, the Gemaga liveblog, Iwata’s speech began with recognition that some say Japan’s DS market has already been saturated. “But there is still a way it can spread,” he said. “From one unit per family, to one unit per person.”
Tomorrow morning, at the Nintendo Media Summit in San Francisco, we’ll find out whether Nintendo has deemed U.S. families ready for a similar hardware diffusion.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Well, shit. Any word on WPA support?
October 1st, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Meh. Not a significant improvement over the DS Lite. Even if it has WPA, I think I’ll pass. I’ve lived without WPA for long enough that it doesn’t bother me anymore.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Funny, Dave, that site’s video feed was from, let’s say, a rather seedy website (Luckily, Firefox blocked it from loading).