Nintendo's DSi Available in US By Next Summer

Although Nintendo's follow-up to the ultra-popular gaming handheld the DS will be available in Japan starting tomorrow, US players will have to wait until next summer. But that's a-okay with pretty much everyone as far as I can tell.

The reason for this, beyond the fact that nearly all Japanese made products are released in the Japanese market first, is that the initial release date information given by Nintendo-US President Reggie Fils Anime was a vague but distant sounding, "well into calendar year 2009." The DSi though obviously very similar to the existing DS Lite is different in many ways, for example: it is slimmer but has a significantly larger screen, it has a built-in opera web browser, it doesn't have a GBA slot, it has two on-board digital cameras, and it has music playback, SD memory card functionality and will feature access to downloadable content through the DSi Store. The bummer regarding the new unit are that DSi games and software will be region locked, meaning that they will only play on DSi units from the geographical areas the games were manufactured for, i.e. Japan games for Japan, North American for North America, etc. It looks as if this restriction will also be the case with downloads from the DSi Store. Still, every DSi will be able to play any DS game though, since DS software cards always have and will continue to not be region locked. Region locking is a bummer because lots of people have partaken of DS imports for years. No more if you are using a DSi though I guess. Regardless, potential owners in North America and Europe will be able to see how the Japanese market takes to the new unit before the unit goes on sale here next year.

Check out the features video below made for the Japanese release for details, though all in Japanese I'm afraid.

--Tom Milnes