Third-Generation Nintendo DSi May Keep Sales Soaring
Nintendo reports it has sold more than 100 million handheld gaming machines since its late 2004 launch of the Nintendo DS, which inaugurated a new era of portable gaming by introducing touchscreen and voice-recognition capabilities.
The second-generation Nintendo DS Lite, which is backward compatible with the Nintendo DS and arrived in North America in June 2006, features touch input from a stylus and Wi-Fi connectivity. Both handhelds are popular among gaming aficionados worldwide.
As of year-end 2008, 83 software titles for the two devices have shipped more than one million units globally, and seven have topped the 10 million mark, Nintendo said. The company hopes to keep gamers flocking to the platform by releasing its third-generation handheld early next month in North America and Europe.
A Pair Of Eyes
Called the Nintendo DSi, the new device sports a number of improvements, including the ability to record, manipulate and play sound files, and even allows gamers to personalize their portable playing experiences. However, the most noticeable change comes from two new cameras that serve as the DSi’s eyes: One on the outer shell and one inside that becomes active when the user opens the case.
“The outer camera is there so you can take pictures of other objects or persons as you usually would with a digital camera,” said Masato Kuwahara, a member of the Nintendo DSi engineering development team. “The inside camera is for taking pictures of yourself while you play. That’s why there are two.”
The new cameras only feature 0.3-megapixel resolution, but Kuwahara says that’s equivalent to 640×480 pixels, sufficient for the gaming tasks at hand. “You can capture images at a resolution 2.5 times that of the length and width of the DS screen,” he said.
Recession Resistant?
The sound quality of the DSi has received a boost in comparison with…
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