Here’s Your New Nintendo DS, The DSi

By Spencer . October 1, 2008 . 10:15pm

Details about the Nintendo DSi are trickling in from live blogs of Japan’s Nintendo press briefing. The revised DS is 12% slimmer and has a 3.25 inch screens, slightly larger than the 3 inch screens on the DS Lite. And as reported by the Nikkei the DSi has a camera. Nintendo has not specifically explained how the DSi will introduce music playback, but it has new features like adjusting pitch and audio playback speed.

The DSi won’t be backwards compatible with GBA games since it doesn’t have GBA slot. Instead it has a SD card reader for photos and game storage. The DSi will be able to connect to a Nintendo DS Store where you can download games with Wii Points, now renamed Nintendo Points. Games cost 200, 500, and up to 800 Nintendo Points for premium games. It is unclear if the games will be region locked and the DSi will be region tied to a particular store.

Nintendo will sell the DSi in Japan on November 1 for 18,900 yen ($179). A standard DS Lite retails for 16,800 yen ($158) in Japan.

Images courtesy of Impress Watch.

TAGS: DSi, Nintendo, Nintendo DS

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daizyujin

Ugh. Well at least I get to save my money. Had it been the true successor I would have been ok with the lack of a GBA port. As it is, this feels more like they are beating a dead dog than any true innovation. Not that I expected much. On the other hand the 2008 Wii lineup looks pretty good. Too bad most of them will never come out here.

honorless

I'm betting they'll sell GBA games via the new DS Store now that the slot's been removed.

As for this upgrade—phew, I'm glad I don't really want any of its new features. Means I won't be tempted to "upgrade" my old DS when I should be buying more games, haha.

jarrodand

Yeah, I'm personally holding out until "Virtual Handheld" confirmation. GB/C/A and hopefully some 3rd party fun (GG, WS/C, NGP/C).

Still, I'm a bit shocked at how much Nintendo's added... internal storage, SD support, camera, larger screens, music playback, web browser, downloadable games and still thinner? Reads more like a fanboy wish list than an actual Nintendo product imo, this is honestly way more than I expected of them.

Guest

"The DSi won’t be backwards compatible with GBA games since it doesn’t have GBA slot."
That's going to cause problems with DS games that interact with GBA games (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum come to mind), isn't it?

seiya19

I don´t know about this one... I don´t think that the DS actually needed a redesign, specially one that adds unnecessary multimedia features, like the PSP, to try to be a "Jack of all trades"...

Something that I always liked about Nintendo when compared to Sony or Microsoft is just that, that they are focused on gaming and everything else is secondary.

On the other hand, the flash storage is neat though, as well as the SD support for downloadable games and the larger screens. Not needed, but still nice. And if the multimedia features are simple ones that don´t get in the way of the gaming ones, I guess that´s not an issue.

Furthermore, like jarrod said, a new "Virtual Handheld" shop to buy GB/GBC/GBA games as well as new original games and from old 3rd party handhelds would make it really interesting... If that gets confirmed, I hope that the games become also compatible with the Wii.

And it´s a shame that the GBA slot got removed... Not only does it affect the ability to play such games, but also those several DS games that use it (besides Pokémon, there´s also the Rumble Pak, Guitar Hero and other games that use connectivity with older GBA games). I´m guessing that there was no choice though, because of wanting to make the redesign slimmer.

montypython

Camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!