DS Successor Announced: Nintendo 3DS - 3D Gaming Sans Glasses
There have been rumblings and rumors about Nintendo's successor to the DS throne for quite a while now, but it looks like that will be coming to an end. Today Nintendo has announced the tentatively named Nintendo 3DS, a handheld featuring "3D effects without the need for any special glasses." Nintendo is positioning the 3DS as a truly new system, possibly including a new Nvidia chipset, and not an extension of the DS line like the DS Lite, DSi, or DSi XL.
And though the 3DS is the start of a new generation of handheld, Nintendo has thankfully promised that it will be fully backwards compatible with all current DS and DSi games. So while we don't know much about hardware specifics for the 3DS, or how exactly Nintendo plans to put 3D effects on the systems two small screens without glasses, we do know that it will at least have everything that the DS and DSi have. Expect two screens, one of them touchable, a microphone, WiFi, DSi Ware, and cameras on both the inside and outside of the system.
And since Nintendo is a complete tease, that's pretty much all they have to say about the new system so far. The only other scrap of info we have to go on is that it will be coming out sometime before the fiscal year ends in March 2011. There will also be a much bigger reveal for the handheld at this year's E3, where presumably we'll be able to see for ourselves what the 3DS is all about.
So, who's planning on picking up a DSi XL on March 28? Great timing Nintendo.
Nintendo 3DS info in English [John Ricciardi's Twitter]
Launch of New Portable Game Machine [Nintendo announcement PDF]
Re: Launch of New Portable Game MachineNintendo Co., Ltd.(Minami-ward of Kyoto-city, President Satoru Iwata) will launch "Nintendo 3DS"(temp) during the fiscal year ending March 2011, on which games can be enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses.
"Nintendo 3DS"(temp) is going to be the new portable game machine to succeed "Nintendo DS series", whose cumulative consolidated sales from Nintendo amounted to 125million units as of the end of December 2009, and will include backward compatibility so that the software for Nintendo DS series, including the ones for Nintendo DSi, can also be enjoyed.
We are planning to announce additional details at E3 show, which is scheduled to be held from June 15, 2010 at Lost Angeles in the U.S.
NaviFairy
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 23 March 2010
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: 3d gaming, 3ds, e3 2010, nintendo
Am I the only person sick of this 3D fad?
What effect would this have on battery life? That's always been one of the main pluses to Nintendo handhelds.
Best. Photo. Evarrrrr.
It looks like it's just going to use that head tracking gimmick from the DSiWare game.. I don't think it'll be that impressive once you get used to it and get tired of all the tilt games they throw at you to hammer that thing home.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/03/with-the-nintendo-dsi-xl.ars
@Burr
That kind of camera tracking wouldn't require new hardware, so it seems unlikely that Nintendo is referring to camera head tracking for it's 3D technology. I've also seen rumors that it will use an accelerometer so that tilting the device will allow you too see the in-game 3D space.
More likely though is another report going around from Japanese paper Yomiuri Shimbun that the 3DS will use Sharp 3D LCD screens with a film on the screen to produce a 3D image. There are no-glasses 3D screens being made for use in TVs, so it doesn't seem that far-fetched that Nintendo would use a smaller scaled version of that for the 3DS.
There are also reports from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, which has a tendency to break Nintendo-related news with surprising accuracy, that say the 3DS will have a joystick, force feedback, screens smaller than a DSi XL, expanded battery life, and a longer wireless range.
I called the Sharp lenticular screen thing when their partnership with Nintendo was announced right around the time the DS Lite came out, though unlike last time (when I called the second screen on the DS being a touchscreen on Slashdot a few months before it was announced in 2004) I can't find the comment where I did so. My bet would be that I made the comment on the N-Next forums, which went offline long ago.
Self-congratulation aside, I've been waiting to try a portable 3D lenticular device for years, no matter who made it, but the 4 grand they wanted for Sharp's 3D laptop was way too much.... I also figured that Sharp's tech would bring arcades back for sure, but apparently not.
I hope you guys are right. Lenticular 3D would be perfect for a handheld as viewing angle would no longer be an issue..
Am I the only person sick of this 3D fad?
Nope, you sure ain't.
I was expecting the first 3D crap to be with the PS4 and XBox720, so this was a horrible surprise...