Nintendo moves 435,000 DSi handhelds during first week in US
By Darren Murph 
posted April 20th 2009 7:47AM
posted April 20th 2009 7:47AM
[Via Joystiq]
posted April 20th 2009 7:47AM
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And coincidentally, Hong Kong moved 435,000 R4's, Acekards and CycloDS cards, on which everyone is playing a hacked GTA Chinatown Wars.
Take that Ninty!
Pffft.
If you can afford to live in HK, you can afford to PAY for your damn videogames.
Yar I'm one of the 435,000 who ordered Acekard, I was fortunate to have not buy a DS up till now(DSi).
cams and mics ftw
@ mike
I meant "moved" as in "shipped"..... Almost all american gamers' Acekards and R4s come from HK.
I got my CycloDS and a "copy" of GTA Chinatown Wars!!!
I find it genius how Nintendo reitrates on old hardware, up the price, call it new, and people eat it up like it's apple pie made by Jesus. Hmm...now that I think about it, I would probably want to taste that pie too. Ok, back to my point. What do you guys think of this? The 1UP Yours podcast had a discussion about this. I'm probably going to pick this up since I don't own a DS and I've never owned a Nintendo system before.
Whoops! *reiterates*
Basically, they don't base their product's advertisement campaigns on what the hardware does, but in how cool having them makes you look.
What I don't understand is how are people attracted to buying a system just by watching an ad in which a couple take stupid photos in blue tones. 150€ for that is plainly absurd, in my book, because there are few other things that take advantage of the camera in the near future. But the average DS owner seems to have no clue about that and a lot of cash to burn.
No way i'm upgrading my ds lite.
iIm not that desperate to "make funny effects" on my 0.3 mp photo. The big screens are great but not worth the price leap.
Because you relate to the ads. Look at the ones aimed at female gamers. They have bunch of famous female actors playing together and enjoying the game. It looks cute, fun, and has you thinking, "Hey! This looks fun. I want to try that too." That's how the Wii, iphone, and ipods became so popular. If you advertise your product well then they will sell well.
"Basically, they don't base their product's advertisement campaigns on what the hardware does, but in how cool having them makes you look." - Elora HRanma
Works for Apple. (currently)
Note: You don't look that cool.
Then there are 435.000 people about to discover that their new R4 cartridge is useless on their shiny DSi. If only their consoles took a photo of their faces when the find that out...
I don't want to spell out the solution on Engadget.... simply because piracy has done enough harm to Rockstar, after releasing the best DS (and possibly best handheld) game ever, only to have it downloaded three times as much as it was sold.
I went for a Dingo A320.
My needs are different.
the $70 trade-in from what shall be un-named game stores makes this really attractive. plus having an old gift certificate left over from xmas :)
The big wow is the screen size, and the sound is much better. Looking forward to the download service also. You know there are going to be some good ones coming up, and I'll probably end up buying them even though I already own versions on Wii, pc, etc. silly I know.
Correct me if I'm wrong ... But the unnecessary Camera and very slightly larger screens came at the cost of Backwards Compatibility?
I know what I'd rather have.
Id pick the DS Lite, some current DS games also won't work. I feel bad for all those naive, poor souls then went to pick up a new DSi and won't be able to play Guitar Hero any more.
Or GBA games.
Yep, I know what I'd rather have too - and it's the downloadable games (biggest feature by far), faster processor (even though it only benefits downloaded games and possibly some future DSi-only games), larger screens, better sound, crap internet browser, and unnecessary camera.
I also know that I'm in the vast majority. Almost nobody gives a flying f*** about GBA compatibility, and not very many people care about GH:WT (they probably played it by now).
Of course if you're in the 'almost' that's cool, don't get one. Not saying the enhancements are a big deal either, it's just that to most people they're an infinitely bigger deal than backwards compatibility.
Wow. There are 435,000 suckers in the United States. Enjoy your gimped DS, guys!
If they sold this thing to every sucker in the United States it would've done a lot more than 435,000....
Sam, on the off-chance that you're serious, I will retort.
If you stood face to face with the adult who is exchanging cash for this device and explained to them exactly what they were getting in this "Upgrade" I guarantee they'd walk away. As you aptly said, none of the improvements are really going to benefit the existing library and will only benefit future developers who are interested in making use of them.
This fact coupled with the loss of a peripheral port (Ergo Guitar Hero) and Backwards Compatibility will mean ultimately a smaller pool of things to play - Which is an extremely foolish mistake ergo the PS3.
So really your selling points are marginally (I would italicize that if I could) bigger/better screens and a camera. A poor camera ... That is bested by the cameras that most kids have on their bloody phones now.
So really, do you have any good reasons why someone should waste money in this recession buying a needless pseudo-upgrade for a device that works perfectly fine as is?
Maybe I'm in the small percentage here, but I really don't care about GBA compatibility. The only GBA game I had left was the port of FF6 which is being redone right now for the DS. Also I really want to know how many people actually play Guitar Hero for DS. I bought it, had a it for 2 days and then traded it in because the the peripheral was too short and I had to wrench my fingers down in an odd way to play it. I traded in my DS for a DSi because I didn't think the loss of the GBA slot mattered that much to me, and I got a pretty nice deal from a game store for the trade in. Let nintendo do what they do best, which is print their own money because they make quality products and know how to market them.
I really don't care about GBA compatibility, since my dad threw out all my GBA games. I did buy a DSi and for the people who don't own GBA games, they would not give a shit about the compatibility. Although all the electronics I buy through other people end up defect somehow, and my DSi slot-1 won't read anyDS games unless I push it in all the way and hold it there. Wish I kept my receipt instead of pulverizing it.
still waiting and will continue to wait on the DS2, UNLESS there is a new "New Super Mario Bros 2" coming out in the near future that uses the DSi, then i will break down and buy, but lets hope we might possibly hear a possible DS2 at Nintendo's conference this year. Its gettin time, usually they release one last handheld in the gen then reveal a new system, so lets hope this is like the GBA Micro with a release of the DS!! You already know the DS2 will have cameras, but i want larger screens, widescreen, and more power, this shit isnt cuttin it, i want GC graphics.
Latest, "great trade in deals" from Gamestop:
"DSi Trade Up Offer
Get $70 toward the DSi by trading in your DS-Lite, or $50 by trading the original DS or $20 by trading the GBA SP."
This is absolute crap, and I don't understand why people buy into this.
I bought a DS Lite because the screen was a massive improvement upon the original.
I however, DID NOT trade in my original DS.
JUST THIS WEEK, I sold my original DS on ebay for $80.
Even though I waited THAT LONG, I still got that much money. Ebay and Craigslist exist for a reason, people!
I really, really don't understand Nintendo's lazy upgrades and peripheral releases. The e-Reader, Gameboy Camera, DSi... I really didn't see the point of any of them. Depending on the 3rd party developers to do something with your stupid peripheral is a really, really, dumb idea. It works with the Wii, because the motion controllers CAME with the system, and since they crippled the number of buttons, developers had no other choice.
I will give in and say I like my GBA Micro, even though they removed the GB and GBC support (which of course was also missing in the DS).
Next thing you know they'll be releasing a version of the Wii that removes Gamecube support, just like the later PS3s stopped supporting PS2 games.
DSi = a crippled DS Lite that costs as much as a PSP. Hmm...
I don't see any good games coming out for PSP's or PS3's eyetoy... Did Nintendo feel the need to jump on this?
I dunno, apparently keeping good games around for old systems isn't the hip, cool thing to do.
I should have been an idiot and sold my Nintendo instead of just the games I didn't like, or have treated my system like crap so it died on me, then 20 years later buy the same freaking games all over again as a digital download, just so I can say I can play Mario on my Wii, even though I've been playing the SAME MARIO GAME on my original NES, my GBA, my DS, my PDA, my PC, my DC, my Xbox, my PS2, etc. etc.
I'm sorry if I don't want to pay twice or more times for a game that I've already owned for 25 years.
It's a shame the prices of the DS Lite haven't come down. I'm after a Cobalt Blue one on import but I don't want to pay over £100 and I don't trust the really cheap ones on ebay from HK (that, and they take ages to turn up)