NOA President: "DSi Pre-Orders Stronger Than Any Console"

By Spencer . April 3, 2009 . 2:18pm

NOA President: "DSi Pre Orders Stronger Than Any Console" The Nintendo DSi sold a lot of units in Japan during its holiday season launch. While it’s way too early to tell if it will do the same here, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has high hopes for DSi sales.

 

In an interview with CNBC Fils-Aime says, “All of our retailers are out pre-selling this right now. What they are telling us is the pre-sales for this device are stronger than they ever seen. Stronger than the DS Lite, stronger than any console they’ve sold, including our own Wii console. The consumer reaction has been very strong because they see the benefit in the added attributes we offer.”

 

The “added attributes” Fils-Aime mentioned in the interview are tools for creativity on the go (i.e. the cameras) and the DSi shop.

 


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  • Celedin

    I got my DSi today and I love it! >D

  • vicviper42

    Is the battery life really as bad as they say? I'm getting mine in a few days and I'm a bit concerned about that.

  • Celedin

    I've only had it for a few hours due to arriving late in the post so I can't really say personally. However according to the instruction manual it depends on your level of brightness. Lowest gives you 9-14 hours, Medium gives 6-9 hours and Highest only 3-4 hours.

  • http://denpanosekai.blogspot.com denpanosekai

    I'm so surprised there's such a huge market for the DSi… I mean who doesn't have a DS by now?

  • Mikael Antoniades

    I admit it is sickening that I am even interested in this add on after upgrading to the dslite (more due to the phat with broken shoulder buttons and lack of customer support in my country) , well it is pretty brilliant of nintendo to capitalize this new version on the playful mechanics. As I always wanted to be able to store the doodles on the ds.

  • daizyujin

    That is exactly what I am wondering. Short of DSiware I don't see what is there. Reggie even was making comments in an interview that basically equated to saying that DSi specific chip games are far off, if coming at all. I am just curious what is the thing that is making the impulse to buy click. I sure don't see what is there currently.

  • Aoshi00

    lol.. usually you see these perfect human beings in Nintendo spots fooling around w/ the camera, it's even funnier to see a middle aged man stretching his forehead..

    I don't know.. the whole reason I got a Lite was because I got $50 for my SP as a Gamestop trade-in. It was a worthy purchase for me because the SP was very dim compared to the Phat. I never went back to the phat after getting used to the Lite's higher brightness even though the bigger original has a better grip. (the reason I didn't trade in my SP for the phat was because I imported the graphite black when the US only had the dull silver). The DSi just gives me no incentives yet at this point, though the phoenix wright blue badger DSi is tickling my fancy..

    I wonder if Gamestop is having any trade-in deals w/ the Lite, and how many people would go for it, even if it means losing the GBA cartridge and longer battery life. Since my main purpose is to play games on a DS, shorter battery life on a handheld is a big negative (I have my Lite's brightness at 3 out of 4 at all times)

  • matty

    Gamestop is actually offering a trade-in special. Good till 4-05-2009.

  • matty

    Well, some dope JACKED my DS Lite at work last week, so of course I'm going to have to get a DSi.
    Otherwise, seeing how there isn't that much mentioned that's going to be an exclusive to the DSi that really interest me, it wasn't something I was planning to check out soon.
    The features are cool, but they honestly never caught my eye. It would be awesome if they had a feature that translated Japanese text into English in games or some other language. Like a Casio Electronic Dictionary.

  • MadMirko

    Who says you can't buy a DSi anyway? Or even two? :)

    I sure did, and so will quite a few others. It's a sexy machine, DSiWare is great (ArtStyle: Code rocks BTW), I saw myself actually using the camera and sound features (even though I wasn't interested before I had the systems), and I'm thinking about passing my Lites on to people who still have a fat model or maybe my nieces (my GBA needs are taken care of through SPs, Micros and even GBAs (one of which is a modded version including a lighting solution).

    I love the feel of the new dpad and buttons, and the larger screens are ok as well. Sound is absolutely better, and I just plain like having new gadgets. With DSi-enhanced and -only carts on the way, maybe even a VC like service… good enough reasons for me.

  • daizyujin

    The signs say they are giving $70. If you got invited to one of those “Club Nintendo Platinum” events that Nintendo did a few weeks ago they gave you a coupon to get $100 off. I only have a phat and am perfectly happy with it.

  • Wishy

    I pre-ordered the beautiful blue one a few days ago at EB Games. Urrggg I can't wait until tomorrow to go buy it. :)

    Why does Nintendo have to release things on Sunday? I can't fully enjoy it because I have homework and school the next day. :/

    Hahaha EB Games just called me to remind me to pick it up tomorrow. I was hoping he would say today.

  • Celedin

    I'm exactly the same way with the camera and microphone, I didn't care about them when purchasing but now I just find myself messing around with them all the time.

    How is Art Style: Code? I went for getting Art Style: Aquite myself along with Paper Plane and Pyoro.

  • MadMirko

    It's one of those easy-to-learn-difficult-to-master games. Just make 10 by swapping and combining numbers. Easy. Only it's not. Especially not when swapping numbers can change them (a 2 can become a 5, a 6 a 9 depending on the direction(s) you move them), or unusable (a downwards swapped 4 is turned on its head and is unusable in that state), or are unmovable.

    I'm addicted to all the single player modes, unfortunately I haven't had the chance to try the multiplayer (only one purchase required).

  • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

    I think Gamcrazy has a pretty good trade in promo. You get $90 for a DS Lite $60 for a Phat. Just a suggestion :)

  • Aoshi00

    Thanks for the heads up, but I wouldn't be trading in either the Phat or Lite, kind of like both of them. Of course I use the Lite to play GBA games too as I only have the tiny Famicom Micro. Also the US colors are not to my liking, blue is just ugly and I alrdy have a graphite Phat & Onyx Lite, so don't want another black DS.. I would get a DSi when there are killer apps out in the future and better color.

  • Aoshi00

    Thanks for the heads up, but I wouldn't be trading in either the Phat or Lite, kind of like both of them. Of course I use the Lite to play GBA games too as I only have the tiny Famicom Micro. Also the US colors are not to my liking, blue is just ugly and I alrdy have a graphite Phat & Onyx Lite, so don't want another black DS.. I would get a DSi when there are killer apps out in the future and better color.

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