Nintendo launching DSi in North America on April 5

by Jason Dobson on Feb 18th 2009 8:37AM

Early adopters can begin forming a line outside their electronics boutique of choice as Nintendo has officially announced the street date for the DSi. The company's third stab at its popular touchable moneymaker will hit and, we predict, promptly fly off store shelves on April 5. The date is just 24 hours off of an earlier prediction last month, which by prognosticator standards isn't half bad.

For those who have been living under a rock (it's difficult to take pictures of you under there), this latest hardware revision will shoehorn a pair of cameras onto the handheld, as well as an interactive voice recorder and ability to play tunes stored on an SD card. Downloadables are also promised with what Nintendo creatively calls its DSiWare application, with software available for a range of prices starting at 200 DSi Points. It's unclear what software will be available at launch, however. What we do know is that the system will retail for $169.99, a bit cheaper than expected, and will be available in any color you want. As long as those colors are either blue or black.

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Tags: ds, dsi, launch, nintendo, nintendo-dsi

Reader Comments (99)

Extra duct tape left over from the Wii?

Because everything works fine on it still, it has several big games still in production and still selling stupidly well.

If any console is far from dead it's the DS.
My guess is Sony will jump in first with a new PSP.

releasing a day after my birthday, i'm not gonna buy it and i don't have a DS (i used to)

I think it is a good idea, just spending the extra $40 gets you:

The DSi Shop,
A revamped interface,
MP3 player,
Camera's (inner one might be able to make video calls with it hacked, o_O),
Volume rocker instead of slider (yess!!!!!! no accidental volume increases),
Matte (not fingerprinty),
Built-in web browser,
Better wireless connections,
Power button is back (because I hated accidentally sliding the power off with the lite...)

To me the extra $40 is a good deal, since my lite's hinge just recently cracked...

Don't forget the ability to switch games will it's on.

Also, the CPU is twice as fast and it has 4x the RAM, but you never see that in spec sheets because technically I don't think Nintendo has announced that, but people have taken them apart and found that out. Makes sense, otherwise there's no way it would be able to do realtime video processing.

An extra $40 is a great deal for all of those features. But I already have a DS Lite so I'd be spending $170 on those features. :P

The DSi is a waste of time. After 5 years, you would think that Nintendo would release an update that actually improves the hardware. I would take GBA compatibility over the SD slot any day of the week. What is the point of 2 (shitty) cameras? My 2 year old cell phone has a better camera.

I think that the price raise is also a bad decision on Nintendo's part, anyone who thinks 'of course the price is higher look at all the new stuff we get' is just kidding themselves. The dsi is still built around the same 5 year old, mass produced circuitry that powers the DS and DS lite.

I think that this is going to be the Gameboy Micro of the DS series, and Nintendo might release a REAL hardware update within the next year.
And, on a side note, the increased price will probably cause more people to buy a PSP. Increased PSP sales will attract more developers/games to the platform.

"whats the point of these two cameras?"

i am assuming the inner facing one will be used for eyetoy-like games? i think that could be fun, but potentially humilating if you are using your DS on the train...

They DID improve the hardware, the CPU is twice as fast (133mhz vs 66mhz) and there is 4x as much RAM (16MB vs 4MB). No one seems to mention that though since technically they never released the specs, but people who took it apart found out. http://hackmii.com/2009/01/dsibrew/

I just want to upgrade my phat to the lite. Hopefully there's a price drop on the lite in the near future, but I'm not holding my breath.

It's an interesting way for them to keep the DS around for another couple of years at least, but one i want no part of (of course, i wanted no part of the Lite either. My November 04 Phat attests to that)

Until they make DS games that will only play on the DSi. You know they will!

Won't be getting the DSi for multiple reasons...
#1: Won't play the R4 cart.
#2: I am not interested in the majority of the DS game library because the system sucks for 3D graphics (with the upcoming exception of Phantasy Star 0 and a few Nintendo 1st party titles).

I love my PSP mostly due to the fact that it is what I've always wanted in a hand-held game machine - 3D graphics. The DS has its place, but has become extremely inferior to what the PSP has become over the years in both hardware and software.

I love the DS mostly due to the fact that it is what I've always wanted in a hand-held game machine - games.

Now the question is blue or black...

DSi is now available for preorder on Amazon! Pre-order while you still can!

I'm pretty psyched about this

It sounds cool, but there was never a reason for me to buy more than one DS. Still have the original since Day 1.

The DS lite was a very worthy upgrade of the original DS. The DSi is just silly though... wow, slightly bigger screen and a camera... Why would anyone in their right mind spend $170 on this, unless they didn't already have a DS? Sorry Nintendo but this is just a money-grab pure and simple.

I don't think the Lite was worth buying a whole new DS for either. It's smaller and has a brighter screen. Whoop-de-doo. I bought one because my Phat broke. This is no worse than the upgrade from the Phat to the Lite as far as I'm concerned.

Sooner than I expected! :-D

Is it just me or is this to the DS what the Gameboy Color was to the Gameboy.

and I'm really curious about the hardware, everyone keeps saying this isn't a hardware upgrade but having the web browser built in and the ability to manipulate photos says something.

It is a hardware upgrade, but Nintendo never said so explicitly. However, people who took it apart found that the CPU is twice as fast and it was 4x the RAM. Sort of like the the Wii to the Gamecube.

Yea, I find this to be an interesting step in the handheld market, despite it being a step Nintendo has done before (with the Gameboy Color).

I'm just wondering what innovations will come with this.

Wow...why does the US get jipped with system colors on every corner, NIntendo? I swear, I wanted an orange GC like japan got but that would never happen. Oh, and a matching Game boy player to my fruity purple cube? Yah, thanks alot on that one too.

It surprises me overall that they aren't gonna have white to go with wii right away, it was the first they showed with the black...whatever, looks like my DS phatty gets to stay in the sunshine a little longer.

Am I to understand that the only reason you're keeping your Phat instead of upgrading is because of the colour choices?

... really?

Yah...I guess that makes me kinda picky. None the less, it urks me that if i only waited a month or two there would be more options in the horizon. Besides, I imagine the DSi shop won't be all that crazy good at first, kinda like wiiware was with its one or two high quality titles at first. Also, if the DSi has some kind of faults...maybe they'll be worked out by the new colors...yah, I'm reachin for excuses, but I likes me white ds's!

I was disappointed to see that the standard white version wasn't going to be a launch colour, too, but it's certainly not a factor for me when deciding whether or not to buy one. :P

i would want this, but i have no wifi since my usb adaptor crapped out (wired FTW), i may just rebuy a lite, my L button is dying, and the mic isn't working

why not just get it repaired?

got mine preordered. Love you black DSi

While I have a DS lite I still plan on getting a DSi but probably not before a price drop, which may not be that far off as that price fixing issue for DS screens should be all dealt with fairly soon.

Where'd white go?

Nintendo must provide all DS, NES and SNES games as downloads over WiFi at a fixed subscription rate for unlimited games at about $1 per day per game with a maximum price of $10 per game to own it.

They can charge a little extra for new releases such as a $2 per day per game and a maximum price of $20 per game to own it.

This makes total sense, Nintendo can lower the price by half now that there would be no distributor and no retailer, cutting out the intermediaries, Nintendo and third party developers would still make the same money per game per person. And cutting the price by half of old games (could be 1 year old and older), is a totally normal practice.

Letting people pay $1 per game per day makes it possible for people to try out a whole bunch of different games to see which ones they really like. This increases the quality of the games that people play, it increases the amount of games people play and it kind of makes it useless to deal with Flashcard hacks.

It should also have all the N64 games.

If people sign up for a monthly plan of around $20 per month and signup for a 1-year such plan at least, then Nintendo should give complete unlimited access to all the games and may only charge $1 extra per day up to $10 for games that are newer than 3 months.

For people that don't subscribe for the unlimited games plan, people may also buy game updates such as $1 per update per day up to $5. Which may for example add new circuits to the Mario Kart games or which may add online functionality to Super Mario Kart SNES for example.

If Nintendo doesn't do this, then I think it should be totally okay that hackers continue hacking the DS using flashcards even though Nintendo may now update the firmware of the DSi over WiFi to try to block the hackers.

http://nintendo.joystiq.com/2009/02/18/dsi-preorders-available-at-amazon-and-gamestop/comments/17190769/

The only reason I'm excited about the DSi is the DSiWare; if it had a helluva a list of downloads being shown already or it will up to the release date, then I'll probably pick up a Blue one fast...otherwise I'm still cool on my Blue DS Phat...wonder how much the DS Lite will go down too.

Awesome, I won't buy one that's for sure but at least the prices for the DS Lite and original DS will drop so significantly that I can finally pick one up just like that. Right now I think they're still too expensive for someone like me who doesn't play a lot of handheld games anyway.

Why do I have the feeling Nintendo is going to release a high profile DS game that will be needlessly exclusive to the DSi soon after its release? I hope I'm wrong, but if any company were to do something like that, it'd be Nintendo. I'll upgrade when you pry my white lite from my cold, dead hands, Nintendo!

I'd buy this for the internal camera so I could take in game pictures in my pokemon or AC: WW games. I still have my red "phat" I got for Christmas 2005 and I have my 1 year old DS Lite Coral Pink (I DS to DS a lot between my AC: WW towns). But I'll probably wait to see if they come out with new colors. It took awhile before they came out with a PINK DS Lite (I think it was June 2006?) so they need to come out with more colors before I consider buying it. My two DSs work fine (I just hope the pink one never breaks cause that's what I use for WiFi). The built in browser would be nice as well as the SD slot.

And I still have my GBA and GBA SP for GBA games.

Why does this come with its own launch title?
Kinda weird, I'm guessing the game is just there because it was at the right time at the right... time?

I love the blue color. I will be getting that one for sure.

Oh, man. They're releasing a BLUE one?! AWESOME.

And, well, I guess the price ain't too bad... $150 would've been ideal... but $170's okay.

It doesn't support the R4 so unfortunately I'll have to pass and continue with my DS Phat.

It doesn't support any of the current flash carts. Obviously Nintendo's gonna counter existing exploits.

Which is why they find new exploits and create new flash carts!

Yea but I don't really want to purchase a new flash cart, unless of course its simply a firmware upgrade.

How come every ds system boxes here have to be so big?i wonder if they put a strap in the us version cause on my jap box theres none =/
if any of you guys interested of watching my nintendo dsi vids such as utsusu made in wario,dr mario dsi,and more channels.please check out my channel

www.youtube.com/mariohenri
sub!

i hope that i can trade in my black ds, for a new black dsi and that no one at eb games notices.

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Nintendo launching DSi in North America on April 5

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