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Portables (Games) Nintendo Games

Nintendo Announces 3D Successor of Nintendo DS 232

Posted by Soulskill from the had-to-check-my-calendar dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Nintendo has posted a press release (PDF) titled 'Launch of New Portable Game Machine,' promoting a new, upcoming handheld game console temporarily named the 'Nintendo 3DS,' which will feature 3D graphics without the need for any sort of special glasses. It will be backward-compatible with DS and DSi games." An article at Kotaku speculates on how the 3D tech will work. The launch window is vague — sometime between April 2010 and March 2011. More details will be revealed at E3 in June.
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Nintendo Announces 3D Successor of Nintendo DS More

Nintendo Announces 3D Successor of Nintendo DS

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  • April - June wormhole? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Between April of this year and March of next year? Details to come in June? So if it launches in April, we wont find out about the tech until June?

  • The launch window is vague — sometime between April 2010 and March 2011. More details will be revealed at E3 in June.

    If it's launched in April 2010 I would hope there would be *considerably* more details revealed well before June.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by TSchut ( 1314115 )
      Well, the press release states "during the fiscal year ending March 2011". That's literally between April 2010 and March 2011, but the summary could have been a bit more clear. Maybe they're aiming for the holiday season of 2010?

      • Yeah, I'd predict an October-ish launch. That'll give them lots of opportunity to get supply high, parents can buy it and hide it for Christmas, but demand as Christmas presents won't wipe out the supply for those who want it NOW.

  • At least I hope not.

    Nintendo tries more off the wall ideas than any other company in the industry. For as many failures as they've had, they also have a higher success rate than most at creating and marketing fads. Lets hope there's something to this one and it doesn't go the way of the Virtual Boy. New Nintendo handhelds make me giddy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EdZ ( 755139 )

      Nintendo tries more off the wall ideas than any other company in the industry.

      To be fair, it also rehashes existing titles far more than any other company in the industry. The number of games in the Mario franchise alone must number over a hundred by now.

      • Re:Virtual Boy 2? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by FlyingBishop ( 1293238 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @09:56AM (#31582938)

        But unlike the other companies in the industry, when it rehashes titles, Nintendo usually creates games you haven't played before.

        Actually, they're sort of the exception to the rule that game companies abuse their trademarks to basically do nothing of any value. Nintendo uses their trademarks to make good games sell even better.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by brkello ( 642429 )
          I don't know, have they really done anything all that original with Mario lately? Just feels like sequel after sequel. It actually seems a bit lazy to me since they just reuse the same characters for everything. They drive cars, play tennis, beat the crap out of each other, etc. Just seems like an excuse for Nintendo not to do anything interesting as far as developing new characters.

          Yeah, I grew up with Mario, but it is hard for me to get excited about him at this point. Nintendo needs to innovate a l
          • Name one other platfomer that has had as many sequels and has gone from something like SMB 1 to super mario galaxy and managed to retain a high quality through out the series. There are no others. Even Sonic is down right embarrassing these days.

            Mario has been shoved in some lame sports series and spin-offs but the main series is exceptional and has change quite a bit from its roots. They even managed to pull off a decent mario game without Mario. Perhaps the only weak link in the chain is super mario su

          • Re:Virtual Boy 2? (Score:5, Informative)

            by Bigjeff5 ( 1143585 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @01:50PM (#31586540)

            You should try Super Mario Brothers Wii.

            They go back to the side-scroller style with a new game - different suits, new mechanics, and new worlds in which to chase down Bowser and Princess Toadstool. It's the same type of game as the old SMB games, but it is definitely not re-hashed anything except the premise.

            Probably the funnest part about it is the co-op play. The mechanics are such that you really do need to strategize and cooperate with your partner in order to succed in co-op mode. My roommate and her boyfriend are so bad together, it's hilarious. ^^

    • The Virtual Boy was a flop of such a magnitude that nobody in the entire video game industry will [i]ever[/i] make that kind of mistake again.

      For what it's worth, Nintendo is the biggest innovator in terms of how gamers interface with the console and games, but they never fully flesh it out or at least get third parties to hop on board, which is really sad. The Nintendo DS's touch screen, for example, is usually misused in such a fashion that its usage in games always feels "tacked-on" and unnecessary and

      • The Wii is an even better example. Such wasted potential with the wiimote. Most of the crap on the Wii is shovelware that uses the wiimote's features for half-hearted party games that do not even seem to respond all that properly to the wiimote, at least in my experience.

        I couldn't agree more, though I love the Wii remote and nunchuck for first person shooter games. To me, nothing is worse than having to aim with an analog stick; I typically prefer a mouse (on a PC gaming platform) however the Wii remote

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Zerth ( 26112 )

          Again, I didn't look into the details too deeply, but I saw a handful of reviews that say while the precision is great but it needs constant recalibration to work effectively.

          It adds rotational sensors which are much better than detecting the change in "down", but after 30-60 minutes the sensor drift becomes noticeable. It doesn't take much to recalibrate, but it throws you out of the moment.

          And if you are really into a game, you might not notice until something goes wrong(ie, you try to block but eviscera

      • Nintendo doesn't appreciate online gaming enough and is still too stuck on maintaining its "Disney clean" image.

        Then Nintendo could do something that Disney did long ago to maintain its "Disney clean" image: release edgier stuff through subsidiary labels like Touchstone and Miramax.

      • The Virtual Boy was a flop of such a magnitude that nobody in the entire video game industry will [i]ever[/i] make that kind of mistake again.

        Until the people with first-hand memories of it aren't running things any more. At fifteen years, the pain may be starting to fade...

        • Not so sure. The Virtual Bay was the gaming industry's Holocaust, if it wasn't ET for the Atari.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mog007 ( 677810 )

            I think you're forgetting that crash thing back in the 80s. Some could argue that ET precipitated the crash, but it was only one element that factored into it.

    • Nintendo tries more off the wall ideas than any other company in the industry.

      Agreed, but Apple is up there...
      Wildly offtopic I know, but - anybody - why has Apple never gotten into this business?
      I suppose the closest they got was the Apple (i)TV, which was hardly a massive success...

      • why has Apple never gotten into this business?

        They did, actually. [wikipedia.org]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by anss123 ( 985305 )

        why has Apple never gotten into this business/quote They made the Pippin back in 1996 and nowadays they got the itouch. I wouldn't call any product Apple has offered "off the wall" however, just good marketing and good implementations that are regularly refined to stay competitive.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ProppaT ( 557551 )

        Right, except Apple isn't in "the industry." The "industry" we're talking about is the console gaming industry.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Idiomatick ( 976696 )
        Like what?

        The innovative GUI was bought. Innovation of the PDA wasn't innovative, there were many others. Innovative mp3 player was 'bigger hdd'.

        Likewise, their innovative 1 button mouse is stupid. Their innovative integration of screen and computer is stupid. Their innovative drm is evil, and based on veridisk drm. Their TV sucked, pipin sucked.

        The apple II was a good idea though. Props to steve Woz in 1977. Looks like pretty much every time they have innovated they've sucked horribly at it. So could y

        • Really? What other PDAs were around in 1989 when Apple started working on the Newton, or in 1992 when Apple's CEO coined the term, "Personal Digital Assistant?" The innovation of the iPod wasn't that it had a bigger hard drive, because it didn't. If I recall correctly, there were 6GB HD based players at the time. The innovation was the interface. The click wheel made scrolling through your 5GB of music so much easier than up and down arrows of other players. The Macintosh was the first widespread use of the

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kelbear ( 870538 )

      Sounds like an elaboration on the 3d diorama puzzle game for the DS that uses the camera to track the user's head and shifts the screen perspective to match the change in angle.

      Looks like holding a window into a 3d Box. There was an article on Slashdot about a grad student that used the wii controller cameras to get the same 3d effect on tv.

  • Head tracking (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zouden ( 232738 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @09:10AM (#31582270)

    From the Kotaku post that describes a Japan-only 3D title for the DSi, it appears that this new device (if using similar technology) is not 3D in the "Avatar" sense, but 3D in the "Johnny Lee Head Tracking on Wii" sense.

    The image itself is still flat, but the system updates the image to present different angles based on the way you hold it (using the camera with head tracking). So you can turn the 3DS to look around objects. I think that would be a very effective (and useful) use of 3D than simply making things look like they're coming out of the screen.

  • Successor to the 3DS? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Archaemic ( 1546639 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @09:10AM (#31582276)

    I look forward to the successor of the Nintendo 3DS: the Nintendo 3DS Max.

  • 3D without glasses? (Score:5, Funny)

    by davegravy ( 1019182 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @09:17AM (#31582342)

    That's easy. The user closes the left and right eye rapidly in an alternating fashion and in sync with the stereo signal switching.

  • Fad (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pegasustonans ( 589396 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @09:21AM (#31582388)

    I hope this 3D fad is over soon. It's just another excuse to distract people with eye-candy instead of creating something more compelling.

    • Either you're in denial or you have yet to realize its already here to stay. 3D Isn't going away anytime soon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brkello ( 642429 )
      There is nothing stopping people from making something compelling and 3D. I never really agreed with people who think that being compelling and [insert tech here] are mutually exclusive. Good game companies figure out how to use it well and make something more compelling than it would have been without the tech.

    • I hope this 3D fad is over soon. It's just another excuse to distract people with eye-candy instead of creating something more compelling.

      With the type of 3D you see in the movies and stuff, I agree. However, if this is done in the way suggested in the video linked to by the article (where it uses the camera to detect your movement and simulate 3D) then I don't think it's entirely useless. How often do people playing a game tend to lean to the side to see around a corner. Yeah, we all have a good laugh about it now, but if you could actually make it work, that's would be great***. One of my complains about a lot of 3D games is that the camera

    • 3d is the future though. Even if it is also eye-candy there is good reasoning for having it. If you went back 1000 years and asked if people wanted a 2d or 3d display they'd all say 3d. You are just USED to 2d. So no, it isn't a fad at all.

  • When will it end? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by soupforare ( 542403 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @09:23AM (#31582408)

    I was hoping 3D would kind of peter out in a couple years but it's getting ridiculous.
    As a man-child who hates change, the Nintendo handhelds have been the last bastion of sprite-based gaming for me. As a cyclops who doesn't see in 3D anyway, I have no interest in the gimmick. Don't you do this to me Nintendo! :(

  • It's just too close to April for an announcement this weird. I'll believe it when I see more details.

  • Anyone else thinking stereograms [wikipedia.org]? You know, two screens and cross your eyes a bit and bits of the image pop. It's got actual 3D, and it doesn't require glasses. Of course, it would likely get INCREDIBLY tiring after a while, unless they did something interesting to trick your eyes into not thinking they're focusing weird.

    • Oh no... Definitely not. I'd bet on something more like lenticular. The A/B images are split up by a fine grid of vertical lines in the screen. Like a lot of DVD cover promotional boxes.

    • That wouldn't be a good idea, considering the fact that a lot of people can't "see" the 3D image in those stupid things no matter how hard they try (like me).

  • I'm looking forward to all of the "Use both of my eyes? Why would I want to do that? I also prefer my games in black and white, and with subtitles held up between scenes rather than hearing the dialogue. Also, I have live musicians sit next to me on the bus and play the game music." comments.

  • If for nothing more than hacking and playing with the 3d display myself...

  • Seriously, when was the last time Nintendo implemented something in one of their platforms that wasn't a complete gimmick (and no I don't count the less than 1% of the time developers use the Wii Remote or DS touch screen for a function other than something that worked perfectly well with a button press)? Perhaps the N64 analog stick... I'm already less than impressed with 3D technology for multi-thousand dollar home theater setups. The chances that Nintendo will manage to produce a glasses free alternat

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Myopic ( 18616 )

      Wait, did you equate pushing buttons with swinging arms? Do you honestly think that motion sensing is a gimmick layer over pressing buttons?

      • If 99 out of 100 games only know if you're swinging your arms, and not where you're swinging them, then yes, I do consider it a gimmick. I can count on one hand the number of games on the Wii that actually realize the potential of the control scheme in a way that tangibly adds to the immersive experience of playing them.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Belial6 ( 794905 )
          I have to agree. It is also frustrating that a huge number of games that would work better with the classic controller don't support it at all. The WiiMote on it's side, while usable, is not a good replacement.
    • Gimmicks that become standards are called innovations.

      And the DS is a game system, for you know, FUN. Slashing a sword by slashing your screen is FUN. I imagine looking around the little world by moving your head (or tilting 'the world') will also be FUN.

      And if you read the fucking article you'd realize you were talking about the wrong thing entirely. This is not about 3d as in different images to each eye. This is 3d as in perspective changes as you move your head. This creates a window effect, as in, i
  • A couple of dollars of components would allow them to implement "3D". Namely put a tilt / magnetometer into the DS and games could change the display as the user tilted their device around. Nintendo like their profits so I really don't see them doing anything radical when a relatively cheap gimmick like this would garner them a lot of new sales.

  • Head Tracking tech demo (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Yuioup ( 452151 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @09:59AM (#31582982)

    I wonder if it's going to look like the tech demo shown in this Youtube video:
    Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote [youtube.com]
    Y

  • I suppose the announcement comes to late for hands-on at PAX East this weekend, unless Nintendo's adopted the Apple-like strategy of not announcing products until they're in stock at the stores.

  • ...there won't be much need for more details at E3 in June, will there?

  • Betting against Nintendo (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @10:29AM (#31583408)

    I thought the GameCube would be Nintendo's last console, but they survived through the worst sales they ever had with a console.
    I thought the DS' twin screen gimmick would never stand against the PSP, but the DS went on to become the best selling portable of all time.
    I thought the Revolution controller was a gimmick, but it touched a nerve with gamers when it was publicly playable at E3.
    I thought the name of the Wii would prevent it from ever being taken seriously, but people got over it.
    I thought the inferior graphical capabilities of the Wii would sink it, but the sales numbers showed the market didn't care.
    I thought the Wii was just a fad when it first came out, but the sales stayed high and continued to break records three years later.
    I thought Wii Fit wouldn't take off, but then it went on to exceed the PS3's entire fanbase.
    I thought the 3D graphics of the 3DS would add nothing substantial to games, but by then, I learned to stop betting against Nintendo.

    • Re:Betting against Nintendo (Score:5, Insightful)

      by magus_melchior ( 262681 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @12:49PM (#31585586) Journal

      We could go further back in history, you know:

      When the Famicom came out, people thought video gaming was dead because Atari and its competitors completely imploded under the collapsing home video gaming bubble they created. It sparked a new and viable market that continues to this day.

      When the PlayStation crushed the competition, people thought Sony would never look back and that Nintendo was finished in the living room. Two generations later, Nintendo is back on top.

      Could this new 3DS be a flop? Maybe, but with Iwata at the helm and Miyamoto still cranking out great stuff, I doubt it-- Iwata learned several key lessons from Nintendo's failures, and Miyamoto is a gaming genius.

    • Nintendo survived the N64/Gamecube era stuff, which is something Sega didn't, due to their strong hand hold market position. GBA and Pokemon carried Nintendo through some dark times.

      Nintendo isn't fault less. Like other Japanese tech companies they tend to make wild, custom built technology that may fly or crash. Conveniently forgetting stuff like Virtual Boy or the weak "successes" provided by Nintendo by Disk System, N64 and GameCube to praise their recent success is kind of naivety. In particular, a

  • Most people figured a new Nintendo handheld was coming out soon. Some people expected an announcement at the big media event they had last month. A lot of people expected them to announce it at E3. Two weeks ago at GDC was the dark horse contender for a potential announcement. Instead of any of that they just send out a press release on a random tuesday morning at the end of March? What the hell?

    Is there some kind of crazy logic i'm missing here? After Sony's disastrous failure at preventing leaks prior t

  • There's a link at Ars Technica that has an interesting possibility.

    http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/03/with-the-nintendo-dsi-xl.ars [arstechnica.com]

  • Parallax barrier (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheSync ( 5291 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @02:37PM (#31587438) Journal

    Gizmodo [gizmodo.com] says "The Japanese publication Asahi is claiming it'll use one of Sharp's parallax barrier LCDs."

    Parallax barrier have been used in cell phones before, although recently people have been getting excited about the 3M system that uses frame-sequential alternating directional light emission (such as in the viewfinder of the Fuji FinePix Real 3D).

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