DSi hitting Europe spring 2009
by Chris Greenhough 
{ Oct 2nd 2008 at 6:40PM }
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Reggie could only offer an incredibly vague "well into 2009" when asked about the North American launch date for the Nintendo DSi, but Nintendo's European arm has been a little more specific. Over at the official site, the company says the DSi will hit Europe in Spring 2009, instantly bringing hope to North Americans who may have feared a release at the wrong end of 2009. It would be highly unusual if Europe received a piece of Nintendo hardware months before the U.S, so we're suddenly more optimistic about seeing this in North America soon ... ish.
Gallery: Nintendo DSi
[Thanks, Metaknight!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
RupeeClock @ Oct 2nd 2008 7:58PM
Beautiful, hopefully won't have to wait too long.
It's not a choice for importing thanks to the download points.
Peter R. @ Oct 2nd 2008 8:10PM
Yes, it would be "highly unusual" for Europeans to get a Nintendo handheld way before Americans, but me thinks Nintendo has been doing a mighty lot of "unusual" things lately. So heres to hoping us Americans don't get sucker punched in the nether region by NOA come spring 2009.
NetOperator Wibby @ Oct 2nd 2008 8:12PM
Well this makes the wait considerably acceptable [and shorter hopefully].
Ericj @ Oct 2nd 2008 8:49PM
I disagree... with the falling value of the dollar. it would make alot more sense to release in Europe first because of the higher value of the Euro and the Pound. But historically speaking USA all the Way? please?
aj @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:46AM
.....but the Euro was worth more than the dollar even before the US economy started to tank. It's just that the Euro is somewhat (well, okay, a lot) more stable than the dollar.
But the things are all made in China anyway, and they are priced differently in each region to get sweet, sweet profits.
No advantage to releasing in either market first! Save that the North American market is pretty damned big, because Americans love to buy plastic crap they don't need a lot more than Europeans.
TryToGuess @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:27PM
@aj
On the otherhand, there are some worries the U.S will go into hyper-inflation, and if the DSi was released during that time, Nintendo would either have to raise prices (which Nintendo seems to hate), or sell them at a loss. I guess that's one reason to wait a bit...
Ericj @ Oct 2nd 2008 8:50PM
I disagree... with the falling value of the dollar. it would make
alot more sense to release in Europe first because of the higher
value of the Euro and the Pound. But historically speaking USA all
the Way? please?
Naiyeli @ Oct 2nd 2008 9:19PM
Europe Europe Europe first! I'll probably get a black one.
Game_playa @ Oct 2nd 2008 9:19PM
I disagree... with the falling value of the dollar. it would make alot more sense to release in Europe first because of the higher value of the Euro and the Pound. But historically speaking USA all the Way? please?
Game_playa @ Oct 2nd 2008 9:20PM
I disagree... with the falling value of the dollar. it would make
alot more sense to release in Europe first because of the higher
value of the Euro and the Pound. But historically speaking USA all
the Way? please?
ChangeOfFate @ Oct 2nd 2008 9:28PM
One word: "MEH"
Jasen @ Oct 2nd 2008 9:59PM
I don't care. The new DS doesn't offer anything compelling to make _me_ want to buy one. There are still plenty of good GBA games available. I'm not interested in the camera. The SD card is interesting, though. With no new CPU/GPU power, there's not enough there to make me spend the extra $50.
iofthestorm @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:41AM
I'm thinking there has to be at least moderately increased specs for the features they showed. For one thing, the original Opera browser required the RAM expansion in the GBA slot, and since this has a browser, which is supposedly faster, I'm assuming they included some RAM, although probably not the full 32MB on the Opera cart since they've got NVRAM for cache now. Also, image editing is fairly processor intensive. And if the hinge camera is intended for use as a webcam, which makes a lot of sense, the wifi is going to need to be faster than the bastardized 802.11b they used in the original DS. I'm not that confident about the video chat though, because of concerns about children that Nintendo always seems to have. So, while we haven't actually seen improved technical specs on the DSi, I will be surprised if none of those three things are upgraded, although I'm betting that the RAM is the most likely point of upgrade.
MagNet @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:20AM
I have a feeling the Opera RAM expansion was only 8MB anyway, third party accessories like the 3in1 have usually more (in this case 16MB) and can be OC'd. The main reason the browser is faster is prolly cause it uses built-in RAM that's way faster than using the GBA slot. I don't think that anything else is gonna be upgraded and that the video chat won't be there, picture editing can be done fast if the GPU is used well, morphing could be just moving vertices on a textured mesh etc.
xgk3000 @ Oct 2nd 2008 10:23PM
maybe?
Daniel @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:12AM
The only thing that i don't like about the new DS, (and its really minor) is that it doesn't have the DS lite's two squares on the top cover.
It just looks weird without it i think.
BlackDS @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:21AM
It's true, North America gets stuff before Europe.
But there has been cases where the Europeans got stuff before North America. The DS Browser received a release in Europe before North America. The Nintendo MP3 Player got released in Europe and never got to North America.
I guess we'll have to wait and see ...
Risingsun @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:48AM
According to Reggie the earliest we can expect it is sometime in April, when their new fiscal year starts.
Dustin @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:09AM
I. JUST. BOUGHT. A. DS. LITE.
MagNet @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:24AM
Congratulations, you did well, unless you wanted a PSP that is. I still have to see the new screens for myself but I'm not liking the DSi too much other than that. Yes cameras may be useful but dropping the GBA slot really annoys me. Also as mentioned the missing DS logo on the top should be there, maybe not beveled like on the DSL but maybe just made out of glossy plastic that would flat, kinda like the PSP's metallic ring.
jackrum @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:32AM
Any work on if they've added region encoding? I might be able to handle losing the GBA slot, but I would hate to lose the ability to play imports.
Michael @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:05AM
I have to agree with the points others have been making. it seems to me that they are likely waiting to see how the economic state of America will pan out. if they are already in production, it would be a huge oversight to not release before Christmas. the only reasonable explanation for this, that i see would, be that they want the dollar to stabilize thus increasing net profit overall.
Risingsun @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:48AM
I want to know what colors Europe and North America will be getting. Id be very disapointed if we didnt get Black at launch like Japan is.
wiitard @ Oct 3rd 2008 2:19PM
0.3 MP camera? Why Bother?
Rich @ Oct 6th 2008 8:17PM
The hinge camera (facing the player) is 0.3 megapixels, but the top camera is 3.0 megapixels.
Tom @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:39PM
Is it just me, or did some of the style nintendo had get lost? I mean, the DS lite looks like something that is inviting and open to gamers, and the DSi looks like something that wants to enslave mankind. It's also falling into the dreaded trend of "let's slap a camera on it.". Do we not have enough devices that play mp3's, take pictures, ect.? The games better ingeniously use it's new features. It's feeling like a no-go to me.