Nintendo currently has “no plans” to introduce retail cartridge software that is only compatible with the
newly unveiled DSi hardware, says executive vice president of sales & marketing Cammie Dunaway in a new interview.
Speaking to Wired News, Dunaway qualified the statement by saying: "As we've historically done, you’ll see us do interesting things with software to take advantage of the hardware capabilities."
"As Mr. Iwata talked about last night, this new memo pad is one of the cool technologies. It's not necessarily a game, but it certainly enables people to act as an animator and use their photographs in an interesting and entertaining way."
Nintendo has previously been happy to release titles compatible only with the most advanced versions of a format, most notably the Game Boy Color and Expansion Pak-equipped Nintendo 64. Downloadable software unique to the DSi has already been announced, beginning with new versions of
Brain Age.
Dunaway also indicated that the DSi is unlikely to be region-locked, allowing any software from around the world to work on the hardware. Although Nintendo’s home consoles have always been region-locked, with very different released dates and marketing campaigns globally, portable formats have traditionally always been region free.
On the question of whether the existing DS Lite hardware would still be sold alongside the DSi, Dunaway was less clear. "Right now, we’re still working through what the strategy's going to be here," she said.
"You’ve seen some of the work we’ve done this year with celebrities, that we're bringing a lot of new consumers in to the DS. So I think there’s opportunity for both of them to coexist for some period of time."
Dunaway was also able to confirm that the pricing of the DSi in the U.S. would be higher than the DS Lite, although no specifics were given. In Japan, the DSi is priced at ¥18,900 ($183), compared to ¥16,800 ($163) for the DS Lite.
