Will there be DSi Stock

Nintendo have now announced the US and UK release of the Nintendo DSi, which will be on the 3rd and 5th April, respectively.
This is absolutely massive news, as it means that the western world can now get their hands on the gaming console of the year. The DSi sold almost 200,000 units it it’s first two days of launch in Japan, and hit over 1 million in sales in 2 months. Sales have of course slowed now, but are still topping 50,000 units per week.
So can we expect the UK shoppers to react in the same way? I believe we can, although sales numbers will not hit such astronomical figures.

There have been many reports that the UK is slowly over taking Japan in terms of it’s addicting to gaming consoles, with Nintendo reporting that in the past 3 years they have sold 9 million DS Lite consoles in the UK alone. So we can safely assume that their will be a similar demand for the DSi console. The demand will come from both existing DS Lite users wishing to upgrade and/or have a second console, as well as from new customers to the DS family. The DSi will no doubt have a wide appeal, as it is no longer just a simple gaming console, but so much more, with dual camera’s and wi-fi etc.

The issue is that Nintendo have a history of never providing enough stock (driving up the price maybe?) and so the DSi will most likely sell out within days. However don’t expect to see long queues outside the retailers selling the console, as most sales will occur online and have been pre-ordered. This is an ideal situation for not only the retailers, but also consumers, as they don’t need to venture out and fight their way into a store to get it. They simply log in online, pre order the Nintendo DSi console and wait for it to arrive. Simple.