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Nintendo Announces 3D Successor of Nintendo DS
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.
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?
can i hold my wii in my hands now?
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.
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.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
Homebrew.
I'm curious to see what processor they will use. ARM-based I'm sure, but will it be one of the Nvidia Tegra series?
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.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
I look forward to the successor of the Nintendo 3DS: the Nintendo 3DS Max.
That's easy. The user closes the left and right eye rapidly in an alternating fashion and in sync with the stereo signal switching.
They have lenticular TVs. It is like the old playing cards that were 3d when you moved them. The screen just has to know where the pixels line up with the grid, and it can do math to shade the pixels to make it 3d. You lose 3x the resolution, and it makes you sick after a while. My old work had a 50 inch lenticular display. It made you sick after a while. Additionally there are viewing cones. Where you have to be at the right angle to see the 3d.
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.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
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!
--- Do you believe in the day?
Don't make another gimmicky console overflowing with copious amounts of shovelware.
Nintendo doesn't release shovelware, except possibly the WarioWare franchise which is a well-executed satire of shovelware. As for third-party shovelware, the developer criteria are already significantly more restrictive than those for iPhone. If Nintendo does anything to rein in third parties' shovelware, it will draw criticism that its platform is too closed and that there is no way for a third party to make money from the platform.
And no, first-party shouldn't be the sole source of quality games.
You can't have it both ways.
they just follow the washing powder marketing trends. Bio, Non-Bio, Dual action, Color, 3D. whereas Sony and Microsoft are 1 blade, 2 blades, 3 Blades...
Virtual Boy anyone? I thought they did this before :P
The VirtualBoy should never have left the prototype stage. To play it you had to sit in an awkward position and the "3D" was pretty much just a gimmick. E.g. in Wario the blocks swing in and out of the screen instead of up and down like in Mario games. I recall wondering what Nintendo was thinking when they released a product even the ardent Ninentdo fanboys back then had trouble praising.
Agreed. There were a couple of fun games for it, but the thing really was pretty much a waste of money.
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That's more than likely a function of your age, not the intrinsic fun of the game. Many people seem to have an age where video game enjoyment is at a peak. Afterwards we're nostalgic for the fun we had at the time. There seems to be similar effects with some genres of movie (especially sci-fi) and music.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Couldn't agree more with you...!
You have to wonder what Nintendo is doing. Are they concentrating more on the Japanese market or something? Why hasn't a new, REAL proper continuation of the Star Fox series been made, and not the spinoff crap they've churned out?
Conker, Goldeneye, etc type games are long gone since Rareware was sold to Microsoft, and that may have been a good decision since Rare's no longer as big a name in the gaming industry (that's really depressing). Final Fantasy, etc, is probably never going to make a triumphant return to a Nintendo console, either, at least not the main series. We won't be seeing anything like FFVI again, I think :(
You neglect its biggest defect of all: the headaches it gave players. How THAT got past QA...
Your point of view is right, thank you for sharing, if you have the time, also came to see my site...
If you're going to spam forums, at least learn a bit about the culture there. No self-respecting Slashdotter would start a post how you did.
It's just too close to April for an announcement this weird. I'll believe it when I see more details.
Hey, it works for Windows!
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Yes, please Nintendo, stick to the 0.01% of the world that wants hardcore action games (to the extreme)! They'll make you a good half a million dollars before they figure out how to pirate games and are finished buying anything ever.
Or, you know, you could just not buy Imagine: Babiez/Petz/Hamsterz/Whateverz. Amazingly, when you don't pirate games, you actually only play games that are interesting to you! It's an intriguing concept, actually.
Your comment is ridiculous. Anyone with $129.99 (+tax) can buy a DSLite. Therefore, companies will make games for various target audiences. Pre-teen girls have no interest in 3D FPS games. They will be posting the exact crap you did on Barbie.com or wherever. Once you come to realize the world doesn't revolve around you, you will see the Lite (heh, see what I did there?).
Anyone else thinking stereograms? 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.
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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.
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.
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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 alternative, that isn't decidedly sub-par, in a ~$200 device are practically zero. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but my gut feeling here is that this will be nothing more than another cheap gimmick that looks good in commercials, but does nothing to actually enhance the experience of playing games, and may even impair that experience in some cases.
Your post is wrong. The official announcement says, "during the fiscal year ending March 2011."
Of course, this coming from Nintendo Japan means they will get it by March of next year. Expect an additional 6-12 months for the rest of the world gets their releases.
It's hard to start homebrew on a DSi. In order to start a program even in DS mode, you have to first dump a licensed DS game using a DS or DS Lite and then copy that to your DSi-compatible homebrew card so that it will pull the equivalent of a PS1 swap trick when the DSi tries to check the digital signature. DSi homebrew, on the other hand, requires one of several specific DSi Game Cards with a hacked save, much like Twilight Hack and Indiana Pwns on Wii or the 007 Agent Under Fire and MechAssault exploits on the original Xbox, except 1. you need a DS or DS Lite and a normal DS homebrew card to write the save using something like RAC, and 2. the maximum size of an app is tiny because they haven't yet figured out how to load a .elf from the SD card.
And portable was a gimmick too. It's not like you didn't need both hands just to carry it around.
In that respect, i wouldnt be surprised if the only nintendo console i ever buy anymore will be for my girlfriend, i have moved on to the xbox.
But what will you game on while away from home, if anything? It took Microsoft years to make an "Xboy" by porting XNA to Windows Phone 7 Series.
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.
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
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Buy some Viagra from my online pharmacy site, you insensitive clod!
Very plausible, probably won't effect price at all. I hope to see this implemented into all devices. The iPhone has been following suit on a lot of DS(lite/i) trends, I suspect the next being a front facing camera and wouldn't be surprised if they pulled this trick out of their hat. It doesn't seem like a too complicated process, the camera and motion sensors are probably all it requires then a 100kb script of code. The price will most likely be 169.99 I'm guessing, maybe. 149.99 to try not to compete with the Wii, however.
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.
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Stop replying to bots.
...there won't be much need for more details at E3 in June, will there?
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.
I had one and there was I think 2 games I had for it I loved. Never gave me a headache though. To be honest if they could remake it in an actual portable package I'd buy it again.
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 to last year's E3 (and somewhat Microsoft as well) has Nintendo decided there's no point in trying to keep anything secret prior to a big announcement with the internet as good at ferreting out secrets as it is?
Their timing of the announcement is so bizarre that i haven't even started thinking about the device itself yet.
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You forgot that the display was an eye-searing red on black. It's like they deliberately picked the color most likely to irritate the eyes on prolonged exposure. (Yeah, I know they were cheap and didn't drain the batteries much, but that was to me the #1 source of eyestrain.)
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
It's a DS, so there are two screens anyway. If you hold it really close to your face (maybe just use a rubber band to attach it) then you can see a different screen with each eye - problem solved!
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
You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people. - notnAP, #26891325
I still have a virtual boy... it's awesome. So :-p
So what you're saying is that you're an FPS player instead of a gamer?
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Because the guy that came up with it invented so many big things for Nintendo including the hugely popular Gameboy. I think Nintendo doubted it but also thought the has hasn't done wrong yet. Of course he left Nintendo after the VB.
I have a VB (got it at lauch) and - personally think it is very fun in some games and it feels like there is actual space there unlike games like quake or tomb raider.
It's issue is that it is neither portable or something you can really share with friends, the stand isn't good enough and it can damage you vision when not properly calibrated. Seeing those sorts of warnings put people off of a product. But with the right game and finding the right setup it was a blast to play.
If you could have hooked up the virtualboy to the little robot with spinning gyroscopes... that would have been a game!
DS is wicked easy to play custom games on.
Which is why Nintendo learned its lesson on the DSi and its 3D successor. DSi already has significantly improved security, and it rejects most of those $20 cards. Some of the newer cards claim DSi compatibility, but I mentioned in another comment that the way to get that working is almost as cumbersome as old-school PassMe.
So if they tried to stop people from doing so it was a really pitiful attempt.
Trying to shut down all homebrew card makers is more a game of Whac-a-Mole than anything else. Once the DS Lite is out of production, it might become easier.
This is old news. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
About half of those were/are fairly successful.
I don't know what's truer, that, or there being almost zero good Nintendo DS games.
I bought my Nintendo DS when it first came out way back when. Along the way there have maybe been a dozen games that weren't either extremely easy or contained a great lack of fun. Maybe I'm just too old to enjoy a linear jRPG with terrible dialogue and combat that solely amounts to me being the team water boy, serving the potions when they're needed.
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 big thing that will ruin the 3Ds is the price tag or increased software production costs.
Gizmodo 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).
3d is just another dimension (excuse the pun) like sound, colour, and movement that can be used for many reasons
A 2-dimensional optical illusion is not truly 3-dimensional.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
I dunno, the DS restored my faith in portable gaming. There's the Ace Attorney series, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, New Super Mario Brothers, Scribblenauts... Honestly, a lot of these games are simply good entertainment. Personally, I was particularly impressed with how well Phantom Hourglass used the DS's features.
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In the same way a Human is not a Mammal?
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Some VB owners say you need to adjust the focus of the device, then it won't give you headaches. It's anyone's guess how many people actually did it.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.