The Lost Big Screen Nintendo DS Lite

The idea for a living room optimized Nintendo DS goes way back to the DS Lite days. At that time, Nintendo was developed a DS Lite revision with larger screens. The never released, but ready for production big screen Nintendo DS Lite had 3.8 inch screens.

That’s larger than the standard 3” screens found on a DS Lite, but smaller than the DSi XL’s 4.2” screens. Since the Nintendo DS Lite was flying off store shelves, the big screen Nintendo DS Lite never entered production. However, the unreleased piece of hardware was the base for the Nintendo DSi XL.

Before announcing it as the Nintendo DSi LL in Japan and DSI XL in North America, Nintendo tossed around other names. Shigeru Miyamoto liked the name Nintendo DSi Deka, which would be Nintendo DSi Large in English. Other team members came up with DSi Comfort, DSi Executive, DSi Premium, and DSi Living. Nintendo even thought about using DSi XL as the worldwide name before settling on DSi LL for Japan.