Crispy Gamer News

Japanese hardware sales for Nov. 3 - Nov. 9 shot that the new Nintendo DSi is doing pretty well in the region, beating out every other platform out there including the usually impressive PSP. The DSi sold 104, 897 units during the week, followed in the distance by the PSP at 40, 726 units, the Wii at 24, 726, the PS3 at 18, 354 and Xbox 360 at 12, 759. The good old DS Lite, one the standard bearer of Nintendo’s hand-held business in Japan, is the real victim here; the system moved a meager 8, 381 units, only beating out the PS2 which moved 5, 743 units.

You can see the list - in order - after the break:

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Obviously, the big news out of Nintendo’s press event in Tokyo this morning had to be the unveiling of the new Nintendo DSi handheld, but that was far from the only news coming from the Big N’s conference today.

After starting off with the big DSi news, Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata talked about a new deal reached with McDonald’s restaurants in Japan for expanded DS download kiosks, now dubbed “Nintendo Zone”, followed up by news on the upcoming Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Dragon Quest IX DS titles. Iwata then addressed an issue that’s plagued Wii owners since launch: insufficient storage space for downloads. Rather than whip out the long rumored Wii hard drive, though, Iwata announced that starting in Spring 2009, Wii owners will be able to download content from the Wii Shop Channel directly to SD cards installed in the console. (more…)

So, you’re a major video game company that had an underwhelming E3 performance, and you’ve also decided to skip out on this year’s Tokyo Game Show. What do you do? Well, if you’re Nintendo, you hold a special press event in Tokyo to unveil a new version of one of your best selling consoles. Early this morning, Nintendo officially raised the curtain on the latest version of the DS, dubbed the DSi.

The new handheld is much thinner than the current DS Lite, due in large part to the decision to drop the GBA port from the device. The DSi will also include a 640×480 camera, an SD card slot, larger screens, and new audio capabilities. Using the system’s built-in browser and a Wi-Fi connection, gamers will be able to download games and other software from a special DSi Shop (think Wii Shop Channel … but smaller), and save it directly to the DSi. According to Nintendo, pricing for the ‘DSiWare’ downloads will be broken down into four categories: Free, 200, 500, and 800 points. Apparently, the DSi will also come packaged with 1000 points included at launch to spend at the DSi Shop.

The Nintendo DSi is currently slated for a November 1st launch in Japan, with a retail price of ¥18,900 (US$179). The DSi will initially come in two colors: black and white. More pictures after the jump.

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