Nintendo has committed a release date for the DSi in North America, Europe and Australia this spring but there are still holes and unrest in the future of the unit.
As announced last Wednesday by Nintendo, the new DS update will become available outside Japan in the first week of April with Europe being the first region outside Asia to get the unit on April 3 and America being the last to have it released on April 5.
For those not in the know, the Nintendo DSi looks, essentially like a DS lite, only with two camera lenses (one inside the unit next to the microphone and another on the top the outer shell). Inside the unit has done away with the GBA port, allowing the unit to be slimmed down slightly, the screens are slightly larger (but display the same resolution), and has modestly upgraded guts with a more powerful CPU and about twice the RAM as well as more up to date wireless technology. In addition to this the system also features built-in memory that can be used to store the photos taken with the cameras, AAC music files for audio playback and even store downloadable content, in the form of DSiWare stand alone games, similar to the Wii’s Wii Ware or Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade.
In North America the unit will be getting its own unique colour. Alongside the standard black DSi available since last November in Japan, the United States and Canada will also get a unique (and gaudy) cotton-candy blue unit. Surprising since this means doing away with the white unit that would have been a match with the current Wii model. This almost implies Nintendo is looking to get away from the (seemingly) Apple computers inspired clean white look of the original DS and Wii. After all not too long ago Nintendo discontinued the white DS lite unit in North America in favour of the new silver unit.
The new colour has been met with mixed reactions (mostly negative) but I, for one, embrace it. Sure it’s not the cobalt I was hoping for, but it’s certainly different and since I’m sure most people will flock to the standard black unit, it will certainly stand out in a crowd.
Another thing that seems missing at the moment is that the DSi will apparently not feature any DSiWare content at launch in English-speaking regions. This implies one of two things; either there simply isn’t any English DSiware ready yet or Nintendo of America is taking the safe route and not immediately supporting the download service until they know there is a sizable audience for it. Considering that a number of people are waiting on solid DSiWare support as a deciding factor in whether they upgrade to the DSi or not, this could become a catch-22. Nintendo won’t support DSiWare because nobody will buy the DSi but people won’t want to buy the DSi until DSiWare is better supported.
That or maybe Nintendo is just holding off on the DSiWare announcement until closer to the DSi release date. There is still a good 5 weeks or so before the unit hits store shelves so maybe they will try to reignite the hype fires a little close to the shelf date with news on some solid DSiWare releases then. A boy can dream.
One last interesting bit of info. While Game Stop stores in the United states opened pre-orders for the unit the day after Nintendo announced the release date the Canadian affiliates, EB Games, have yet to begin to take orders, at least in the Greater Toronto Area.
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