14 DAY TRIAL // The good news is that North American players now have access to the DSi XL handheld from Nintendo, which has a significantly bigger screen than the regular version. The bad news is that all of the videogames that players have already bought from the DSiWare service cannot be in any way moved to a new XL, because the content is tied not to the account of a person but rather to a physical device.
A Nintendo representative clearly stated that “No, the games and applications are specific to each system, not each user.” In North America, the DSi XL sells for 190 dollars and comes with some pre-installed programs, such as Photo Clock, Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, and Brain Age Express: Math.
When the Sony PlayStation Portable Go was launched last year, the videogame company caught a lot of flak from gamers and from commenters because it did not allow those who bought one to download, for free or for a small fee, the titles they owned in UMD form for the previous versions of the handheld.
It will be interesting to see whether a similar form of backlash hits Nintendo as the DSi XL begins its sales run in North America. The PSP Go is not selling well at all and Nintendo would not be happy to see the same happen to the XL. If customer reaction is vocal enough, then it might throw in some more free games for XL users but it's unlikely that it will ever offer a way to transfer all content.
The prospects of the DSi XL are also threatened by the announcement of the upcoming 3DS system, which should be outed before the end of March 2011, with the ability of playing full three dimensional games without the use of pair of glasses. Some potential customers might prefer to wait for a while before buying a new Nintendo device.