Cool blue for the small handheld

Feb 19, 2009 08:43 GMT  ·  By

The handheld gaming market has been very elusive for a lot of companies except for the top two Japanese ones, Nintendo and Sony. Their products, the DS and the PlayStation Portable, are ruling the market with an iron fist, both of them appealing to very different types of gamers.

But because the DS appeals to the more casual one, coupled with the large library of titles available, it has been more successful than its hardcore-oriented counterpart. We learned a few months ago that the DS would receive a new version, entitled the DSi, which would sport two new cameras, a larger screen, better speakers and, most importantly, an SD memory card slot replacing the old GameBoy Advance one.

Having been launched in November in Japan, the new handheld has been sold side by side with the DS Lite, the second newest version of the portable console, and has had big sales, with Nintendo shipping a considerable amount of units. Now, after a lot of debate on date, price and features, the DSi has finally been confirmed by the Japanese company for the North American territory.

The DSi will sell for 169.99 dollars in North America, and will bring, besides all of the normal features, one new color, which isn't available in Japan, light blue. Scheduled to appear in stores on April 5, the fresh handheld will bring the DSiWare service to the territories it will be launched, making it possible for users to download new games in exchange for DSi points, similar to the system behind the WiiWare service on its bigger brother, the Wii console.

“Ever since the arrival of the first Game Boy, consumers worldwide have turned to Nintendo for their portable gaming,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Nintendo DSi builds on Nintendo's commitment to bringing fun and creative entertainment to everyone, and will allow consumers to personalize and share their very own experiences.”

It seems that GameStop will begin receiving pre-orders soon, so those who still don't have a DS, or would like to buy this new version, should visit the nearest store as soon as possible in order to be sure that they will get their hands on one.