14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has been experiencing a pretty massive surge in sales and, subsequently, in profits during the last few years, as their two gaming consoles, the full-fledged Wii and the handheld DS, have been extremely popular on markets all over the world.
But although the DS is still going strong in almost all countries, Nintendo announced a new version of the portable system back in October, the DSi, and it was already launched one month later in the company's native Japan. Now, as it prepares to land on North American and European shores, the handheld console will still be priced differently and sold side by side with the current version of the handheld, the DS Lite.
As the DSi is currently approximately 23 dollars more expensive than the DS Lite in Japan, a lot of people began to wonder what difference there will be between the two models when the new one arrives in other countries. When asked about this problem, the president of the Japanese company, Satoru Iwata, declined to comment, saying that the prices hadn't been set yet.
“This time, considering the current foreign currency exchange rates, there is no possibility of selling DSi overseas with the same price as DS Lite at all. There will have to be a difference in price. With this price difference, I think that the DS Lite and DSi will be sold side by side in the Americas and in Europe, but I will not be able to comment on their ratio today as we have not announced the prices and we will have to see how people react to the announcement.”
While some rumors speculated that the DSi would be anywhere from around 30 to 50 dollars more expensive than the current DS Lite, we still can't say for sure what the difference will be. What about you? Will you be attracted by the lower priced DS Lite, or will the camera and new features of the DSi lure you in? Leave us a comment with your choice.