Even though everyone in Japan already owns at least 2 Nintendo DSes, the newest model, the DSi has managed to sell over 500k units in the first month of release. Gamasutra has the news:
Quote:
Nintendo's DSi has sold 535,379 units in Japan since the new hardware launched on November 1st, despite constrained supply in its first weeks of availability, according to a report from media and research company Enterbrain.
The system, which adds two built-in cameras, an SD card slot, and a download shop to the previous model, has outsold all other hardware in Japan every week since its debut, including Sony's PSP-3000, which launched less than a month prior.
The entire DS platform, which includes the DSi, DS Lite, and the original DS, has so far sold 24,239,590 units since the system first shipped in December 2004. The DS Lite makes up 17 million of those sales.
I'm actually not excited by this. I don't really want another hardware revision for the DS here in the U.S.. Create an entirely new handheld if you want, Nintendo...quit the "upgrade" stuff. It leads to confusion (some games work on the DS lite, not on the DS (edit: DSi...DUH on me!), and vice-versa...this will grow as time goes by, I suspect, beyond the one or two games it applies to now).
I'm not planning on buying a DSi soon, but the new features are interesting. I can see getting one in a couple of years, after more developers take advantage of the new hardware.
I don't plan on buying one myself but I saw them the day they were released here in Tokyo and man the build quality looks a lot nicer than the DS Lite. It is slimmer and looks much more tightly put together (the body) so to speak.
I have four freaking Lites...you'd think I could get this stuff straight. Grrr! 
