DS: New DSI coming out in

TayneC8 wrote:The only difference is that it has a webcam in it.

Matt wrote:What are the real "differences" in the two? I don't see whats totally new and would make someone buy over the old DS.

Spoiler:

There is no "i" in team. There is one in your new Nintendo handheld. (There's two in "Wii", but I digress.) GoNintendo asked Ninty straight up what's with the I, and got an answer.

Nintendo insists it's not-follow-the-leader of Apple branding "i" on any must-haveable small gadget that exudes 2.0 coolness. Rather:

• The "i" is symbolic of the subject "I" and its personal aspect.
• Plus, the addition of two cameras gives the system its own "eye" on things.

"Nintendo hope that the Nintendo DSi becomes more than a game system and more of a personal tool to enrich our daily lives."

GoNintendo says that comes directly from a Nintendo rep.

"The Nintendo DSi, recently announced for a North American release in April, was almost a very different, very curious beast. According to a new "Iwata Asks" interview, it originally featured two DS game slots.

The original design for the digital camera-enabled Nintendo DSi, according to one of its designers, wasn't well received by the software developers at Nintendo, as the dual DS card slot design turned off game producers at Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development Division. That meant going back to the drawing board.

'The response wasn't that great, and, to tell the truth, we'd sort of been expecting that,' said Masato Kuwahara from Nintendo's Development Engineering Department. 'According to the determined specifications, however, there was nothing we could do to stop it from turning out like that. We unveiled it to them, all the while doubting that it was going to be all right.'

Kuwahara says that the dual DS slot feature, dropped in the final version of the DSi, was added in response to fan requests. It meant a bigger, bulkier take on the Nintendo DS, one that Kuwahara says was met with developer disappointment.

Calling the design of the Nintendo DSi a 'source of some frustration for me,' due to the marginal change from the DS Lite to the DSi, Kuwahara and the rest of the design team say they hope the smaller, less obvious updates to the hardware will make gamers happy. That includes things like larger LCD screens, a matte finish for the outer shell and reset options that are more user friendly.

Get excited!"

"Though the DSi's inclusion of music playback functionality and a digital camera may make it seem like Nintendo is attempting to compete with other multimedia devices (particularly ones whose brand names begin with a lowercase 'i'), this really isn't the case. At least, that's the sentiment of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who recently talked up the re-redesigned handheld in the latest installment of 'Iwata Asks.'

Reaffirming a similar statement made around the announcement of the DSi, Iwata said Nintendo 'doesn't have any intention of directly competing with existing products' such as cell phones or iPods, adding that the media has a tendency to make up inter-corporate rivalries that don't really exist (Panasonic vs. Atari! More at 11!). Sounds like Nintendo, the undeniable big fish in the small pond of handheld gaming, is hesitant to enter the vast, lucrative ocean of multimedia gadgetry."