Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has announced during his GDC keynote address that a new Wii firmware update will allow gamers to run Virtual Console games straight from their SD cards, sidestepping the need for the company to release an external hard drive.
The new Wii System Menu 4.0 will allow gamers to save and load games directly from SD cards, which at 32GB can hold up to 240 games.
During the same speech, Iwata noted that the Wii had finally passes the 50 million units sold mark, making it the fastest console to hit the milestone.
Additionally, Iwata added that the DSi has sold over 2 million units since its release last year in Japan.
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According to Nintendo, the popular DS handheld has reached a new milestone, 100 million global unit sales as of March 6th.
Sales include the original “fat” DS, the streamlined DS Lite and the new DSi which includes a camera, a larger screen, a memory card slot for playback of downloadable content, and an improved battery.
The handheld launched in late 2005 in Japan and North America and early 2005 for the European market and the DS Lite was launched in the Q2 2006 in each market.
Nintendo expects the DSi, which has launched so far only in Japan, to have shortages for this upcoming holiday season and is already warning consumers to buy early when the device hits Europe and North America in April.
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According to Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton, the company will most likely phase out the DS Lite handheld if the upcoming DSi ‘thrives.’
Yarnton would not commit the company to any such plans, but did note that if enough buyers purchased the updated handheld, the DS Lite would most likely be discontinued, just like its fatter brother, the original DS, was.
“We’ll let the market decide,” he said. “We expect some people will upgrade, but we also anticipate that we’ll win over people who were still undecided on DS — the extra features will help convince them. There’s an extra incentive.”
The DSi is slated for an April 3rd release date in Europe followed by a North American release two days later.
The system will cost $169.99 USD in North America and will cost around GBP 149 in Europe, both 50 dollar premiums over the current model, the DS Lite.
