The DSi will sell out for Christmas, says Nintendo

We’re not here to bash the DSi. Undoubtedly the DS is one of our all time favourite consoles of all time, but Nintendo isn’t reassuring us about its own confidence in the marketability of the hardware update.

Yesterday we saw a dreadfully staged round table discussion between the major players of Nintendo of Japan, as Iwata and Miyamoto uncomfortably slapped each other on the back and forced a few smiles over their success of design in the DSi.

Now Nintendo’s UK general manager, David Yarnton, has advised buyers to make sure they pick up a DSi before the Christmas rush - after all, there’ll only be around 260 shopping days left once it’s released over here.

“I always advise people to buy early,” Yarnton told The Times. “One of the things that people don’t seem to understand is that factories are producing constantly; they don’t peak and trough. So we’re producing product all the time, but then everyone wants it all at the one end of the year. It’s just so hard to try and keep up.”

So if you wouldn’t mind doing Nintendo a favour and easing its manufacturing burden come December, that’d be great.

The DSi has improved screens, two cameras, the DSiWare store (which ought to be a huge seller, but so far hasn't really seen any support), an SD card slot and - to a small degree - multimedia playback.

These are the features we want to see being put to good gaming use to convince us that the DSi is a worthy investment and a suitable replacement for our beloved DS.

When we first saw the DS, it was clear how it would evolve our gaming experience. With the DSi, we’re having to guess, and that’s not a good sign.

And just like Satoru Iwata, David Yarnton is apparently under orders to insist the DSi suffers no competition in the current handheld games market.

“Mobile phone gaming has been ‘going to happen’ for a long time,” he believes. “We’re still waiting.”

Ouch.