Nintendo's next portable game machine will be called "Nintendo 3DS" and feature 3-D graphics, the company said Tuesday morning.
The Nintendo 3DS is a next-generation portable game machine, a successor to the current line of products. It will feature a 3-D display that does not require the use of glasses. It will be released in Japan before March 2011. Nintendo 3DS will be compatible with Nintendo DS and DSi software, the company said.
Nintendo will reveal more information about 3DS at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles this June.
Glasses-free 3-D technology has been around for a while in computer monitors, laptops and televisions, but hasn't proven as popular as the kind that uses glasses. That's because glasses-free 3-D uses a lenticular screen (it's covered with an array of tiny vertical lenses) to direct different images to each eye. It works, but only if you hold your head in the right position. That's a serious limitation for couch potatoes staring at a TV across the room, but would be no problem at all for a handheld game console.
The Asahi Shimbun said Tuesday that the screens would be manufactured by Nintendo's longtime hardware partner Sharp.
The first Nintendo DS was released in 2004. On March 28, Nintendo will release the latest (and apparently last) in the line of original DS players, the DSi XL, in the United States.
Nintendo of America said Tuesday that it could not provide further comment on the Nintendo 3DS. Its Japanese parent company issued a terse English-language press release (.pdf).
Image: Wired.com
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