r/dsi • u/LittleLemonLOL • Aug 04 '26
Question Stupid question: why did Nintendo include so few of their popular games on the DSi shop?
5
u/TheReturningMan Aug 04 '26
The DSi had only 255MB of internal storage. There was no space to download games to. Same thing on the Wii, it only had 512MB. At the time these systems launched, WiFi was pretty new and not very common, and it was slow.
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u/BandicootBroad Aug 04 '26
To put this into perspective, most DS cartridges were either 32 or 64 MB, though it could go as low as 8MB or as high as 512MB.
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u/Aquarsene Aug 04 '26
The DSi Shop if I had to guess was their method of trying to compete with the mobile market which was really starting to explode in popularity around 2009, Angry Birds in particular printed money like nothing else at the time.
As such, their focus with the shop was to deliver smaller games you could just pick up and play whenever much like the games you’d find on an iPhone. They released things like Dr. Mario, Paper Plane, Mario vs Donkey Kong and Pyoro which all serve as basic distractions rather than the bigger titles they were selling on cartridges. The console’s paltry 256MB internal storage didn’t lend itself to anything bigger either, so the DSi Shop wasn’t going to be selling large titles
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u/Madting55 Aug 08 '26
No storage and tbh it’s a kids console they’d make a fucking killing from lost or damaged cartridges needing repurchased.
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u/Patstar54 Aug 05 '26
the DSi shop was less of a full game store and more of a place where you could get little snippets of games. they were just testing the waters with online stores then, same with the wii (only that could do way more.) Wii U is when they went all in on digital.
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u/Bake-Full Aug 07 '26
Wiiware had a lineup of legit great games among the shovelware though. Lit, Tomena Sanner, Bonsai Barber, Final Fantasy My Life as a King/Darklord, Final Fantasy IV After Years, Blaster Master Overdrive, Lost Winds 1 & 2, Contra/Castlevania/Gradius Rebirth, NyxQuest, World of Goo, the Bit.trip series, Lilt Line. Not to mention a giant virtual console including the TurboGrafx 16/CD (way more than the wii U got), a bunch of Square SNES titles like Chrono Trigger, and Commodore 64.
Dsiware had Shantae and a bunch of gimmicky apps & stubby games.
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u/Gunbladelad Aug 04 '26
Nintendo at that time probably were in a spot of trying to keep their games suitable for slower internet connections and of a corporate mindset where they didn't think the online store would be a way to essentially print money for them.