First DSi designs revealed
It nearly had two cartridge slots.
Key Nintendo DSi developers have said the original model featured two cartridge slots, but was disliked internally for being too fat.
"Originally, the Nintendo DSi was designed so that two DS games could be inserted," explained Satoru Iwata during a chat with his Nintendo underlings.
Masato Kuwahara from the engineering department added: "I made the presentation with all these uncertainties swirling around inside, and then at the end asked everyone if this was a game system they would want to own.
"The result was three to seven. Three people wanted it, seven didn't. And I imagine that since one of the designers was standing right there in front of them, some of them held back their true opinion. In truth, it was probably more like one to nine.
"It was as bad as I had feared. We hastily rethought it, decided to remove a certain specification [one of the DS slots], and started over, heading toward the form it has today," he said.
Kuwahara added that the original DSi was "much bigger" than the final version, and about three millimeters thicker.
Yui Ehara, designer of the outer DSi shell, then explained that making the handheld ultra slim was impractical when considering cost and durability and mould longevity. Ehara said manufacturing most skinny mobile phones costs a "lot more" than making a DSi.
But what does that I stand for? It means two things, according to GoNintendo: oneself, and eye. The former adds a personal touch and reflects customisation options, while the latter highlights the addition of two cameras, which take pictures up to 640x480 resolution (0.3 megapixels).
The DSi launches across Europe on 3rd April at an RRP of GBP 149.99.
Head over to our extensive hands-on impressions of the DSi to find out much more.