DSi Special Part 4: Retail and People Perspective

Sites like Mainichi.jp and Dengeki.com have something i don't have: Japanese staff. Either that, or they're staffed by foreigners will balls of steel. Either of these allows them to do something I'd never do: talk to retailers and random people for opinions.

And so, here is a summary of what retailers and random people think about the DSi, as detailed in a couple of articles at the two above sites.

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Mainichi actually posted two articles, one titled Will Lines be Necessary? and the other titled It will of course sell out?.

The former story provided a general look at the system. Included is an interesting quote from Enterbrain's Hirokazu Hamamura: "The DSi could increase the population of game machine owners. If new users increase, Nou Tore (Brain Age) could sell once again. In the future, makers who deal with not just games but digital books and manga and music data could also appear." I'm not sure if this quote was provided by Hamamura for the article or if it was from an earlier presentation.

I'd like to point out that some of what Hamamura said is actually happening right now with the DS. It seems that every week some new DS game is announced with a publisher that I've never heard of. The latest example is Snoopy's Dog DS, which unlike the Square Enix Snoopy game, is published by Hachikou Shouji, a company that manufactures, imports, and sells pet products.

For the DSi in particular, the download functionality will likely make the system attractive for digital media providers. It appears to be working for WiiWare, which already has a guitar game with downloadable tracks (Aero Guitar) and will soon have karaoke and movie programs, each offering paid downloads.

Mainichi also got a quote from a Messe Sanoh representative: "It's certain that there will be lines on release day, but whether or not adequate shipments can be procured will have an effect on future sales." I'm not totally sure what he's trying to say with the second part of his statement. Perhaps something about Nintendo needing to make sure and keep supply up with demand. Supply and demand imbalance was a major issue for the DSLite early on.

The second Mainichi column, posted a couple of days later on the 28th appears to suggest that the DSi is selling at a fever pitch already. Amazon Japan started pre-orders on the 23rd, according to the site, but was all sold out in less than thirty minutes. Now Amazon Marketplace has systems going for 35,000 yen (and you thought those importer prices were high!). Even Yahoo Auctions has topped the 25,000 yen mark.

As I pointed out yesterday, a bunch of stores that didn't take DSLite pre-orders are doing so for the DSi. Included was Tsutaya, although their Shibuya outlet has since reached their pre-order limit. Bic Camera has also maxed out, it seems, as the two Shibuya Bics told me that pre-orders had ended. I don't even recall seeing signs at Bic saying that pre-orders were being taken, which means that the store might have sold out with people directly asking for pre-orders.

According to the Mainichi article, Sofmap was also taking pre-orders, but most stores ran out after a few days.

Some shops aren't taking pre-orders and will be making people line up. That includes Bic Camera in Ikebukuro, which is one of the shops you always see in launch-day photo reports from Famitsu. I'm going to assume (I'll be checking soon) that the Yurakucho and Shinjuku Bics as well as the Akihabara and Shinjuku Yodobashi Cameras are also not taking pre-orders. These are also staple line-up shops.

A representative from Traders, a major used games shop, said to Mainichi, "The demand for trade-ins from 23 million systems is big enough on its own, but the frenzy isn't at the level of the DSLite. However, it's likely that, for the time being, the state will continue where any shipments received will sell out."

On the flip side of these two reports is a survey at Dengeki Online. Only 3.6% of responders to this survey said they'd be buying a DSi immediately, while 29.4% said they'd take a wait and see approach at first. 40.7% said they won't be buying the system.

The Dengeki survey was conducted amongst the site's readers between October 9 and October 22. 81.4% of responders was male and the average age was 26.28. Sadly, the site did not give the number of responders.

Black appears to take the edge amongst Dengeki's reader base, with its 53.4% beating out white's 45.9%. The readers listed the screen size as being the biggest charm of the DSi, narrowly beating out the presence of DSi Ware software. DSi Camera, DSi Sound, and the included SD slot followed in that order.

Regardless of the Dengeki survey, I'm starting to get the feeling that the DSi launch is going to be closer to the DSLite launch than the launch of the original DS. That is, if you haven't pre-ordered, you'd better get up early and wait in line, or maybe even line up over night.

I think I'm going to ready that Chinese dictionary after all. And a jacket, as the weather has just started to turn cold.