Saturday, Nintendo launched their new version of the DS portable gaming machine, called DSi, in Japan, the gadget being priced at 18,900 yen (approximately $192). The company has stated than an overseas release was scheduled for the following year, but no details on the exact date or the device’s price have been disclosed so far.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata informed that the company had already shipped 200,000 units of the DSi console that were to be put for sale during the week-end that began on October 31, while another 100,000 units would be shipped to the Japanese market starting November 4.

During the April-September fiscal quarter of this year, Nintendo sales in Japan have been reported to have gone down by 64 percent, although within the same time-frame, the DS sold 13.73 million units worldwide, which translates as an increase by 3 percent from 2007.

In 2008, Nintendo managed to outrun both Microsoft and Sony in terms of gaming consoles sales, with their DS and Wii gadgets having been in higher demand among users than both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3.

The dual-screen handheld game console Nintendo DS was first released in 2004 in Canada, the United States, and Japan and it featured a clamshell design, a built-in microphone and wireless IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standards support.

On March 2, 2006, the company launched the Nintendo DS Lite first in Japan, followed by a roll-out in North America, Europe and Australia in June that same year.

This latest version of the handheld gaming machine, the DSi, has added both a VGA camera and an external one, being thinner than its predecessor and also having a bigger screen than the DS Lite. Moreover, it no longer features a Game Boy Advance cartridge port.