14 DAY TRIAL // If GameStop numbers are any indication, then the Nintendo DSi, which is set to arrive shortly in North America, will be one big seller, possibly on a scale not seen since the release of the Nintendo Wii.
Bob McKenzie, who is the vice president for marketing at GameStop, has talked to Venture Beat and told it that “We've seen some pretty brisk pre-orders on DSi. It's probably double where we were on the original DS, as far as reservation activity, so we're expecting some great things from that. It feels like they're going to have good quantities to support not only the launch but also some replenishment right behind it.”
If GameStop has a lot of pre-orders, then other retailers are as swamped and the console is shaping up to have quite a lot of success in North America, just as it was in Japan on launch.
What can the Nintendo DSi offer to a consumer in the United States, especially one who also owns a DS Lite? Well, the new version of the handheld is sporting not one but two cameras, designed in order to take pictures of stuff, allowing the player to get his/her face into games, while also having a better screen and losing the Game Boy Advance slot.
The DSi has a lot of networking possibility, which means that Nintendo will be able to stream content directly to the device, which might translate into gamers getting titles without the need for any physical medium.
Nintendo has not talked about the titles that would be available for the Nintendo DSi on launch and there is no news on whether a download service will be established. But if sales are strong, as the number of pre-orders implies, then Nintendo will quickly seize the opportunity and offer a lot of downloadable content for the DSi.