It’s official. Nintendo’s newest redesign of the DS has been released in Japan. Small lines gathered to eagerly fork over some yen for the DSi, but other than that launch demand hasn’t been the frenzy that was expected. Kotaku reports many popular electronic stores having just a handful of customers lining up, or none at all.

Many financial analysts are questioning whether or not Nintendo got over they’re head. Is another DS model going too far? Nope. Give it a few weeks to circulate through the market, and it’ll soon take up the torch as Nintendo’s cash-cow standard.

Want your own imported Japanese DSi? Get ready to fork over some serious cash, because at the time of this writing all major importers have the DSi standard bundle locked in at $299 all the way up to a whooping $499 US Dollars. Pony up!

The Nintendo DS line of systems launched in November 2004, and has gone on to sell over 80 million units worldwide.