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Nintendo Announces DSi XL
lbalbalba writes "This morning, Nintendo announced the third upgrade to the DS family, the DSi LL (or DSi XL). It will be released in Japan on November 21, one year after the DSi debuted, for ¥20,000 (approx. $220). The LL's main improvement is the size of its screens, which have been increased from 3.25" to 4.2" with a moderate increase to the size of the chassis. The device also includes a much bigger stylus, which looks to be the size of a ballpoint pen, and battery life has reportedly been increased to five hours at maximum screen brightness."
It prints free money for nintendo.
When your portable costs more then your home system, something is wrong with your pricing path.
I'm wondering where the demand for this was? It's not like they're increasing the resolution and now the DS size history has gone from its original size, shrunk down to the Lite version, then the DSi came out which was comparable to the Lite, and now they're making it larger than the original DS with the XL.
But Nintendo usually knows what they're doing, as long as they don't color it red and require it be strapped to your face, that is.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
So is this "DS 39" or "DSi 40" or "DS9L" or "D6L" or what?
Bow-ties are cool.
Nintendo predicts 10" screens on Nintendo DS Lite XXXL by 2012 - citing expected simultaneous advances in screens which allow for very large pixel elements and cargo pants with exceedingly large pockets.
I remember the good ol' days when the gameboy color could entertain you for days and days without the need to replace (or recharge) your batteries. The battery life alone would make me not buy this.
The one person who uses his NDS Lite more than any other person I know is my 63 year old father. He likes to play all those brain games as well as card/puzzle games and those My Language Coach series. His only complaint - the size of the screen and the size of the stylus.
Nintendo knows EXACTLY what they're doing. Giving "casual" gamers exactly what they want.
Nintendo has been trying to broaden its market with handhelds the same way that they have with the Wii. Games like brain age, professor layton and the Personal Trainer series appeal to and older crowd but the small screen size can make it rather limited. My mother for instance loves her DS but constantly complains about the text being too small or icons being indistinguishable, a larger screen size would be great for her. Based on the included bundle that appears to be the audience they are going for...smart idea IMHO.
As with the DSi, this move puzzles me. I've had a DS Lite for years, and it works perfectly fine, plus it still plays the GameBoy Advance titles, with a longer battery life than either the DSi or the DSi XL (DSLite: 15-19 hours min brightness, DSi: 9-14 hours, DSi XL: 13-17 hours; source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/29/nintendo-dsi-ll-goes-large-in-japan-on-november-21/). Why should I switch? No good reason I can see, unless I had difficulty with the small screen, in which case I would not be using a portable console in the first place. Maybe there is a demand for a new console every year in the 'home market' of Japan?
[posting as AC, as I can't be bothered to register]
One of the comments that came out from people reviewing the PSP Go was that the screen looked "sharper" because it was smaller with the same resolution as the PSP 3000. Wouldn't this just have the opposite effect for the DSi? As it is the DSi has a rather low resolution and I'd be worried that increasing the screen size will just make games "bigger and uglier". I'm skeptical that this is going to do anything but highlight the shortfalls of the system; it being both the oldest and the slowest architecture on the market.
http://xkcd.com/605/
the DSi added more memory to the DS, just like the DS-lite added more power over the original DS-phat.
With a bigger screen, there has to be more power, memory and battery capacity, otherwise this thing is just a brick
From the article: "Nintendo's handheld sales dropped nearly 20% in 2009. This, paired with unfavorable exchange rates, brought Nintendo's profits down 61% in mid-summer."
While it's never good for a company to have dropping profits, this might not be too unexpected. Their biggest earning seasons are probably Christmas and Chinese New Year.
I wonder what last summer's profits were like, for Nintendo?
Mediocre upgrade with no real reason to buy.
:)
I'll be waiting for the rumoured TS next year
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
Nintendo's niche isn't making things bigger, faster and stronger. They make things that are new and different. The Wii has been hugely successful, not because it pushes boundaries in graphics and processing speed, but because it is a brand new idea. Taking the same old DS and making the screen bigger isn't going to boost sales the way that going in a new direction would.
Now with it's two wide screens they will finally listen to my demands for it to play two movies at the same time! or watch a movie on the top wile playing an old 1 screen game on the bottom, the options are endless mwaahahahha!.... seriously two screen even bigger... don't really see how this is going to improve their sales, they might as well make a four screen device...
This is a Mac, what you have there is an embarrassment to your fellow computer users.
Nintendo predicts 10" screens on Nintendo DS Lite XXXL by 2012
By that time, they might as well introduce the TV adapter already.
On what page of the Rule Book For Everything does it say that Portable + Weaker = Cheaper?
Prices are typically based on value. Value is typically based on what the market will bear.
Given their sales performance across the board, whether you like it or not, there are few things wrong with Nintendo's price structure.
Or maybe they struck a deal with an lcd manufacturer that gave them a really good price on some over sized stock?
The only reason to switch is if a killer app you really want comes out which won't work on your current DS. For me that's WPA wireless on the DSi etc, and a big screen would be nice, but I'm not touching it until somebody less lazy than me cracks it to allow homebrew software to run.
Perhaps they just want to expand their market and sell it to people that didn't buy a DS because they want bigger screens.
Nintendo does it because they can, plain and simple.
Stop arguing about it.
Technology from a couple years ago, larger fonts for older eyes...they're clearly targeting the Korean market.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The LL's main improvement is the size of its screens, which have been increased from 3.25" to 4.2" with a moderate increase to the size of the chassis.
WPA and WPA2 are sorely lacking in the DS Lite, but I'm not inclined to "upgrade." Why? Because the ability to play GBA games is important to me. I can see where Nintendo is going, trying to appeal to older and more casual gamers to broaden the market, but I've read conflicting reports about their DS sales. Somewhere else I read that sales were doing well, but this article says:
"Despite the availability of the new DSi, Nintendo's handheld sales dropped nearly 20% in 2009"
It's also interesting to read in this article that the success of Nintendo's handhelds has been in part due to incremental, rather than generational, changes, and backwards compatibility. Well, this is an incremental change, but it was a very sad day that the DSi came in without a GBA slot, especially since several high-profile DS games make use of it (Guitar Hero requires it? Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum has interface features with Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald?).
What I want, that will make me (and probably every other serious handheld gamer around) upgrade even if it's at a full $200, is a DS with this larger screen, DSi features, WPA2, and a GBA slot that doesn't protrude out the bottom. The increased screen size makes this last part possible when it wasn't in the DS Lite (my model).
Though, another killer feature would be something like the Wii Shop Channel for DS, to download virtual console games, or even DS games, and web browser for the DS. This would be best facilitated with a modest flash chip, say 4gb or 8gb. This would go straight after both the PSP and the iPhone markets, while increasing profits through online content distribution, reduce the average consumer's demand for piracy, all for a relatively small investment. This, however, might be a generational change, and if the DSi is the model for Nintendo's changes I would greatly fear that this kind of shift would be like to PSP Go (which got rid of the UMD; slashdotted a week ago)
I sometimes ask revealing, often ignorant-seeming questions. Maybe they're harder to answer than you think.
iDon't
[It'll be popular among Korean seniors] Only if it includes an email client.
DSi includes a web browser developed by Opera. There are numerous providers of WWW gateways to Internet e-mail. Do the math.
It's the same price (in Japan). The Wii is ¥20,000 in Japan, and apparently so is the DSi LL. It looks like you're converting the price of the DSi LL against the weak dollar and using the $220 price, and comparing that against the US price of the Wii ($199).
I kept wep on my router longer than I should have because I just liked playing Mario Kart just that much. I lost my dslite and thought to buy the new model, but it still doesn't support wpa, just wep. I decided I wasn't going to switch back just for one game, and opted instead to buy nothing. Maybe I'll get the new one if it can do wpa, but if not, no sale.
Larger screens, more legible text, better wifi features... perhaps Nintendo is trying to break into the e-book reader market with this device. After all, e-book readers are popular in the DS homebrew scene, which Nintendo is not totally unaware of, and a company with Nintendo's clout could arrange a deal with Amazon for a Kindle app. I have limited pocket space, and when I'm on the go, I know I'd rather carry around a sightly larger DS than a DS and a Kindle...
anyone else think its possible- nay probable- that Nintendo and Apple are locked in a vicious Trading Places-esque gentleman's wager over who can most rapidly refresh their product lines
It apparently has all this with online downloads, newer Opera web browser and enough memory to run it, and a card slot for flash storage. It isn't that nice to have to buy the GBA games again as files or use some piracy tool to play roms but the machine is capable of running them. I'd miss the slot-1 for guitar hero and even a pedometer that plugs in, plus others have rumble packs, extra ram or extra storage there. There's even a very cheap slot-1 CF card reader that will plug in and let you view photos from digital SLRs (GBA media player).
It does look as if the slot is gone forever.
Why don't DS and PSP publishers just partner with cell phone manufacturers to build mass market crossover devices with the same hardware specs?
Nintendo does this stuff with their handhelds. This is nothing new. With how well the DS is selling, they can afford to make multiple models. Chances are, in a year or 2, they will make another variant of the DS. Just look at how many revisions they did to the Gameboy if you think 4 is alot. As long as they can find ways to keep the DS fresh, they will continue to sell it extremely well, and knowing Nintendo, they will continue to find ways. Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the assumption that the GBA Micro was released while the DS was out, which means even through the DS being released, Nintendo still found a way to keep the GBA fresh. This is not Sega making dumb mistakes with hardware, this is Nintendo. They are making changes to the hardware like they normally do, and judging from the sales of the DS, they know what they are doing
The world is how you make it
http://home.comcast.net/~olimar/DS/jumbotron/