The DSi XL handheld goes on sale in North America tomorrow, but there appears to be one hitch for current DSi owners that are thinking of making the change to the larger-screened new addition to the handheld market.
DSiWare games, downloadable games that cost anywhere from $0.99 to $20, will not be available for instant transfer to the XL, even if you already purchased the games for your DSi.
Says Kotaku: As of now, a spokesperson for Nintendo confirmed to Kotaku, the gaming giant offers its consumers no ability to transfer their purchases from one DSi to the bigger screen XL. But the rep did give a sign that a change in policy could be coming: “We’re looking into that specific topic, but we don’t have anything to announce at this time.”
The problem stems from the fact that Nintendo does not have a sustainable account (such as XBL, or PSN) where user’s purchases are listed and are available for download again as long as you are signed in your own account.
The XL will cost $199 USD and has screens 93 percent larger than the DSi.
Result for: handheld market
According to numbers from VG Chartz, the Nintendo Wii sold over one million units in the US in the last week alone, the highest one week sales count for the console yet.
For the same period, there were 535,806 Xbox 360s sold in the US, and 239,576 PlayStation 3 consoles. The Nintendo DS was the winner in the handheld market, selling 935,000 units to the Sony PSP’s 298,000 sold.
Outside of the US (excluding Japan), the DS was king, selling just under 1 million units. The Wii was second with 700,000 units sold and the Xbox 360 was third with 383,000 units sold. As with the American numbers, the PS3 lagged behind selling 246,000 for the week.
Despite the global recession, Nintendo appears on the verge of surpassing 3 million units sold for the month of December, which should be a new record for next-gen consoles. The Playstation 3, despite seeing large growth year-on-year, has struggled to keep up as of late, most notably after the large price cuts across the board of the Xbox 360.
2009 should be interesting.
Result for: handheld market
Dell is reportedly making a comeback to the handheld device market and could be teaming up with large manufacturer Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) to develop Windows Mobile-based handheld devices.
The company, which ended it Axim handheld line 2 years ago, has been reorganizing for a comeback since early 2007 with the hiring of Ron Garriques, a former executive vice president at Motorola in charge of its Cell phone division.
Apparently, Dell has accelerated its reorganization since “Acer’s recent announcement of acquiring Taiwan-based smartphone maker E-Ten Information Systems.”
The sources have also added that Foxconn is “recruiting talent from other Taiwan-based handset makers in preparation for accepting orders from Dell.”
We will keep you updated.
