DS Lite Price, Launch Date Announced

Kotaku has word on the launch date and price point for the DS Lite, the second version of Nintendo's popular handheld console. From the article: "Nintendo today launched a thousand smiles when they finally confirmed that the DS Lite, svelte brother to the bulky, yet handsome DS, will indeed be coming to the States. The DS Lite will officially go on sale here on June 11 for a mere $130. The only official color announced thus far is that finger print ready white that seems so popular among the iPod set."

And the crowd goes wild.

[Rob T Firefly]

Was there ever any doubt it would be coming to the States? This isn't exactly the PocketStation [wikipedia.org], after all. There's been a huge demand for the DS Lite here since the start. Lik-Sang and eBayers can barely import them fast enough.

Re:What the.....

[gabebear]

Yes, http://kineox.free.fr/DS/ [kineox.free.fr]

and now that they have XIP and WiFi working it is starting to be a bit useful.

Second in the family

[klausboop]

I am going to buy a DS Lite for myself. I frequently borrow my son's now, and having two in the house will allow us to do the local area multiplayer built into most of our favorite games. I think Nintendo is going to have some significant market success on this one, especially if lots of families have similar plans, where there's already a DS in the house and they'll use the Lite as a reason to get a second one, not to upgrade and get rid of the old one but to have more than one in the house.

On another note, I wonder if they'll continue to manufacture the current Nintendo DS and offer it at a lower price than the Lite, or if they'll discontinue the current DS? Look at the GBA -> SP -> Micro release cycle...they did stop making the GBA but it looks like the SP and Micro might both be manufactured, with the SP at $79 and the Micro at $99.

Re:Glad they dropped the price but...

[monopole]

I've got both the PSP and the DS phat. My PSP gathers dust while my DS and GBA micro are constant companions. And I'm getting a DSlite ASAP.

Two Reasons:
The Play-Yan media player. It takes dirt cheap SD cartridges and it plays MP3/MP4 files. It works on any GBA compatible gameboy and it has spectacular battery life. Beating the hell out of the PSPs measily battery life.

The PSP is too bulky, expensive and fragile to carry everywhere. Ditto for the Video iPod. The DS is rugged (and with the DS lite compact). The GBA Micro is utterly inconspicuous and both are much less likely to make one a target for theft.

As for homebrew. I've had more luck with the DS and a programmable cartridge (my DS is hacked to not need a pass thru).