With Nintendo's new DSi hardware unveiled and imminent in Japan
and its inclusion of two cameras, many people – ourselves included – were waiting for the company to announce the big exclusive game it's working on for the console which would really sell it.
But it seems Nintendo has no such plans.
Nintendo executive vice president of sales & marketing, Cammie Dunaway, has recently stated in
an interview with
Wired there are currently "no plans, no announcements" for exclusive DSi software.
She went on to say: "As we've historically done, you'll see us do interesting things with software to take advantage of the hardware capabilities. As [Nintendo president] 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."
So for now it looks like Nintendo will only be providing players with the various bits of software that will come with the DSi to use with the console's new features.
This ties in with Nintendo's previously stated strategy of allowing the DS and DSi co-exist for a while, but some might wonder where the incentive for upgrading is going to be. No doubt Nintendo will be able to push the new features at the more casual market, but if the the actual games won't benefit from these new features then gamers won't be so impressed.
Of course, it does have a built-in internet browser and new store for downloadable games, so perhaps that's going to be the clincher if some decent games are released onto it.
For now though, it looks like we can forget our dreams of playing a new
Mario game with our big smiley face replacing Mario's – because it ain't happening.
