Nintendo announces no-glasses 3D version of DS, the 3DS

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 24 March 2010 15:08

Opinion and Analysis

Nintendo has released a very brief pre E3 teaser announcement referring to a revamped version of the mega-selling DS hand-held gaming device.  The 3DS, a temporary name, jumps on the 3D vision band wagon, purporting to  give gamers on the move an experience in the 3rd dimension without the need for special goggles.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) takes place in June this year, and over the past few years has gained its status as a show that breaks the big gaming news from the big companies involved in the industry.

But some companies cannot contain themselves, with Nintendo today releasing information about a new revamp of the ever changing and ever popular DS hardware.

Nintendo Japan  say: Nintendo Co., Ltd 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 125 million 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 Los Angeles in the U.S.

How this new 3D without glasses will work is currently being argued on forum's and blogs around the world, but on a hand held device with two equal size displays forcing a fixed perspective view for the 3D technology should be easy enough.

Whether 'should be easy enough' also entails, 'should be cheap enough' may be another story, but then Nintendo are pretty good with understanding their niche markets, so, although this 3DS is dubbed as a replacement for the DS series, it is possible that it may well be added to the range for a period of time.

By doing that, Nintendo will have one for the kids (DS), one for the adults (DSi) one for the grandparents (DSi XL) and now, one for the strange techno-geek uncle (3DS).