DSi Sells 170k in Two Days

This morning I was having a discussion about video games with someone I recently inducted into gaming and she asked me a question: “why hasn’t Microsoft made a portable system?”. If I’d had this story already it would have given some backing for my argument.

The DS and the PSP have undoubtedly swallowed so much of the handheld market that it’d be incredibly difficult for Microsoft to get a toehold on the market. The DS has been outpacing the PSP in terms of sales for a while but the PSP is catching up, likely what prompted Nintendo to release the DSi.

It seems it as well timed as although the slimmer, GBA slot-less camera-bearing handheld is only available in Japan it sold more then one hundred and seventy thousand units in two days. Whether it can keep that level of performance up for long is questionable as many of the features the DSi has are of dubious usefulness. Anyone gadget-obsessed enough to pick up the DSi as an upgrade to an existing unit likely already has an iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry or other device that gives them portable wireless capabilities.

The music playback capabilities are severely limited and the camera takes rather low quality photos. The unit itself is overall smaller than the DS Lite and features a larger screen, but it loses some of its battery life in the bargain.