Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke with investors last week about the upcoming 3DS, and some additionally details have emerged. Here’s what you need to know:
- 3DS is not “the formal name,” Iwata maintained, but rather a working title. The final name will most likely be unveiled at E3 next month.
- Due to health concerns, 3D graphics are entirely optionally. “Some people, including adults, have difficulty with three dimensional visuals,” Iwata said. “So, while the 3D image is a special feature of the 3DS, we won’t force the player to use the 3D functionality. By making it so that the player can at all times play with [the 3D feature] off, we believe we can comply with those who have difficulty with the 3D view or those who are worried about their child’s eyes.”
That second bit makes me think the graphics might not pop like I had first envisioned. Thoughts?
(Thanks, Markus)
Well, DS was the working title and we know how that one ended. They NEED to include DS in the name since the brand awareness now is to big to ignore.
I like the 3DS name, and beside the DS has a very good name now, so hopefully they will keep it. 🙂
I'm glad Nintendo did this to be honest. As a person with one less than functional eye, I would have had trouble seeing the 3D. This is also why I enjoy Nintendo being just a games company. They have no stake in the new round of HDTVs with 3D crap that's basically asking people to trade in their newly bought expensive HDTVs for more expensive HDTVs with and a pair of glasses. They aren't trying to push their TV electronics brand of 3D ready TVs because they don't have one.
well i think it will be called NINTENDO DSNitro and the wii2 will be called the NINTENDO WiiRS lets see who is right the RS is short for revolution and is the official name they were using for wii yes NINTENDO RS and Nitro is the origanal name for DS thats my thought plenty of time went into them names before they had a change plan and changed to wii/ds
Maybe they'll go retro and return to the Game Boy brand…
A guy can dream.
Virtual Boy 2
But seriously, did they already confirm DS backwards compatibility?
@David: I believe they did yes. I read something this week on it, in the same article where Iwata says this new portable's games will be even harder to pirate.
it's a gimmick!
*grins and ducks
"Maybe they'll go retro and return to the Game Boy brand…"
No. If anything they should probably stay away from it. DS is way more a successful name than Game Boy (While Nintendo games can be played by everyone and that's confused with a focus on children, there's no need to stamp "boy" on it to cement a younger target audience immediately.) Hell DS is a more popular name than Playstation.
If you can turn them off at any time, surely that means they won't be vital to gameplay? So 3d is just a graphical option? If this thing turns out to be a DSi with a 3d button I'll be very disappointed…
It will probrably just be DS3d
most of you are just focusing on the 3d function. if nintendo is going to release a new system and say for a couple of months its big new thing is 3d and then pulls it out underneath you as an optional feature they were more than likely using it as a fog to hide some other, greater feature.
i think it will probably work very well just like the ds did for gamers coming from a traditional format. some games were better with the stylus and others with the dpad. if they do things right it will be amazing in 3d for those that can enjoy it and just as good in a traditional format for the consumers who have problems with 3d visuals, but more importantly i love that picture.
i remember that game oh so many years ago. i thought it was the wave of the future until you played it. it was something out of back to the future, but didn't live up to the hype. i remember being in vegas with my family and paying a few bucks at the time to play and it sucked. the actors were goofy, there was no clear direction and the controls were lacking. it was similar to dragon's lair, you had to time your choices right or die. i couldn't beat a single level, but for a kid it was at the time it was still pretty cool even with all its flaws.
sorry for that last sentence of jibber jabber i meant to say "but for a kid at the time it was pretty cool, even with all its flaws"
On one hand, it's a good idea to keep the 3D optional, for the exact reasons Iwata mentioned.
On the other hand…I like to hope some games will make it mandatory. Rather, games that will use it for unique purposes in game. Otherwise, it's a textbook definition of a gimmick.
A neat gimmick, but a gimmick no less.
Of course it's very easy to turn off 3d; stereoscopic 3d is formed using two slightly offset images, all you have to do is disable one of them, and the 3d effect turns to flat 2d. And of course it won't be particularly important to gameplay. I'm not sure how anyone thought it could have a very significant role as anything other than a visual effect; 3d pretty much only gives depth to an image; how you manipulate that image is still bounded by interface, and any real changes to gameplay would have to come from changes there, not from the way the screen processes the visual data.
But that doesn't move it to gimmick status, any more than having things like music or color can be considered gimmicks. I don't think I can think of a single game that can't be played without the music turned off, or would be less playable if limited to just black and white. But no one would choose to turn off the music, or rip out the color, unless they absolutely had to; it would hamper the experience of the game even if it didn't reduce the functionality of the game. Just because a feature isn't *necessary* for a game to function doesn't mean it's not valuable to the *experience.*
But the best analogy is probably surround sound. Having surround sound is nice. If you've got access to the equipment, you're going to want it turned on. You can live without it of course, and may not have a choice in the matter, but if it's there, you notice and it's all around better.
If the 3D is optional then it sure isn't the main "extra" of the new portable. E3 just keeps getting more and more interesting.