Nintendo: DSi is "a good opportunity for all of us"

Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton has told MCV that the April 3 launch of DSi in Europe is good news for the whole trade.

“Retail is tough for everyone at the moment, but having a new product is a good opportunity for all of us. It’s the only piece of new games hardware coming out this year, so is perfect for helping drive sales," he said.

“We expect some people will upgrade, but we also anticipate that we’ll win over people who were still undecided on DS – the extra features will help convince them. There’s an extra incentive."

Yarnton added that the sky's the limit for the machine, saying it has "unlimited potential".

“There are 21m households in the UK – each one could conceivably have a DS. Or even more than one DS. That doesn’t mean that we’ll sell multiple units into every family and sell over 60m in the UK alone – we don’t think that will happen - but the numbers are still very buoyant. This is uncharted territory for the games industry as far as we are concerned.

“The functions of the device really open the platform up to more consumers – it gives the DS unlimited potential.”

You should have said you're going to sell 60 million, David. The headline would have been awesome.