DSi gives Nintendo 535,379 reasons to smile

by Chris Greenhough { Dec 2nd 2008 at 2:00PM }

The Nintendo DSi has completed its first full month on Japanese stores shelves, and guess what? It sold a lot! No, really! Enterbrain says 535,379 units were snapped up during November -- a figure that only just failed to match the Lite's opening month of around 550,000 sales. Nintendo probably isn't too devastated by that.

Furthermore, DSi sales have boosted the DS platform's total sales to 24,239,590 units in Japan. In a country of 127.4m, some form of the DS will soon be owned by one in five people (okay, so some will have purchased more than one DS model, but let's not nitpick)! Anyway, as we're writing about the DSi being ridiculously popular again, now feels like a good time to examine the latest import costs:

YesAsia.com: $299.99 (free shipping)
Play-Asia.com: $249.00
Model-Gadget.com: $208.67
Gadget-Asia.com: $223.58 (free shipping)
Renchi.com: $249.00
NCSX.com: $249.00

Gallery: Nintendo DSi Unboxing

Tags: business, dsi, enterbrain, japan, nintendo-dsi

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

chispito @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:10PM

Ha, that guy's apron brings me back. Bic Camera is like Best Buy over yonder, and they had this incredibly annoying jingle that ended "Biiiiiiicu Bicu Bicu Bicu Camera!" sung by some annoying girly voices. Oh look, through the wonders of youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCPbfBkCDuI

Dylan @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:08PM

Of course it didn't sell well! Who needs another DS? Everyone who wants a DS already has one. The DSi offers pretty much nothing different than the first two DS's.

leonus11 @ Dec 2nd 2008 3:27PM

i knew the DSi would pick up sales! i also knew that it wouldn't sell more then the DS lite but with only 14,621 units less then the DS lite it sure has proved MANY people wrong! anyway soon as its released in the US i'll be picking one up so i've no reason to fret.

RupeeClock @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:13PM

You know, when you spend enough at play-asia, like when you buy consoles, they send you free candy!

...Although that's not exactly an incentive to spend another $30-40.

gamer4250 @ Dec 2nd 2008 6:51PM

I still don't understand why anyone would buy this. The only Dsi titles you'll ever get are the shovelware gimmick camera games, the battery life is lowered, and the GBA slot is removed. Remember that quite a few major DS games use the GBA slots for extra bonus feature things.

SephFinale @ Dec 3rd 2008 12:51AM

I still have my GBA SP, and I'll probably keep my Lite after I get a DSi. Plus I plan on finding a Game Boy Player somewhere...

I just hope the DSi's download service allows NES and SNES games, and hopefully some Game Boy games such as...Lufia: The Legend Returns.