GameStop: DSi is "priced right"

**Shrygue** · March 23rd, 2009, 20:28

via Games Industry

GameStop's senior vice president of merchandising, Bob McKenzie, has praised Nintendo's pricing of the DSi.

Speaking to Gamastura, Mckenzie explained how the USD 179 price point still represents value, despite being USD 30 more than the DS Lite.

"I think they've got the value there," he said. "It's great; I think it's priced right. They've done a good job. Seeing the demo of that thing really makes you realise how much different it is from the original DS Lite."

Mckenzie commented on the handheld's redesign, including its loss of the GameBoy Advance cartridge port.

"Having the DSi losing the ability to play your GBA games on it - I don't think that the consumer is really going to look at that as a negative," he explained, saying that demand for the older titles had "definitely tapered off".

"We saw a similar thing with the launch of the PlayStation 3, obviously," he added. "Initially that launched with backwards compatibility, and then some of the variations of the different size configurations weren't backwards compatible."

"The further you get from that launch, I think, the less impactful it is to the consumer, because they feel they've upgraded their library over time."

**havoc_012** · March 23rd, 2009, 20:37

Ya, I remember when Sony took backwards compatibility out of the PS3, everyone celebrated, and threw a party in the streets. Oh wait...

**kaferenza** · March 24th, 2009, 04:37

The DSi is a turd. Plain and simple. And it's virtually impossible to get anyone above the age of 6 to pre-order it since the average consumer can easily see that it's a turd. If you really want all of that multimedia functionality then buy a psp since at least the psp will allow you to play *gasp* MP3 files unlike the DSi. Not to mention you can get a used phat PSP for about $50 less than a DSi.
Oh yeah, and about the PS3 backwards compatibility thing, EVERY customer you see come in that gets informed about them no longer being backwards compatible has the same look of hurt/disgust/confusion in their eyes. I've seen people come in to purchase a PS3 but when told about the lack of PS2 compatibility they end up buying the 360. Smooth move Sony.

**Flygon** · March 24th, 2009, 06:54

Pfft, the demand may have tapered off, but has the use of the GBA tapered off? I think not.

**Qmark** · March 24th, 2009, 08:45

Part of DSi's problem is that there's no point to it. It seems that the only marketable aspect is the same "moms and grandmas" demographic the Wii is derided for fishing in - namely, those who would actually want a terrible VGA camera and would assume that everyone in their email address-list or facebook or something would want to see some stupid picture of some cat or baby doing some stupid thing.

Of course, the cynic in me automatically assumes the entire point of removing the GBA slot is to sell us all of our GBA games again as DS-ware.

**havoc_012** · March 24th, 2009, 10:23

This generation is so backwards. It's the only generation I can think of where things are getting more expensive and they're removing features from the hardware.

**rommy667** · March 24th, 2009, 18:06

Its 190 euros here what i rip off!!!!,but as I traded at old 360 in gamestop ive only got to pay about 55 or so other wise their is no way id get one.im also keeping my trusty lite for gba stuff.......