Following its release of the handheld gaming platform 3DS in Japan at the end of February, Kyoto-based Nintendo is keen to show the world that Japan has a deep reservoir of ingenuity from which to draw. With the new 3DS, the Japanese video game company is betting that it can once again nudge mass entertainment in a new direction, just as it did nearly five years ago when it launched the Wii with its innovative motion-based controller.
This time, though, the competition from other devices is tougher.
The handheld 3DS, which went on sale in the U.S. on Sunday for $250, lets users play 3D games without wearing special glasses. It also takes 3D photos. This summer, the 3DS will play 3D movies streamed from Netflix on its 3.5-inch screen.
Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo’s U.S. arm, calls it “the first mass-market 3D device.”
Nintendo’s handheld gaming systems have been wildly popular since the days of the Game Boy, but in recent years, people have grown accustomed (and sometimes addicted) to playing games on their smartphones. “Angry Birds,” for example, is played by 40 million people a month.
And in the U.S, both AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp have announced they’ll be selling smartphones with 3D screens soon.
Fils-Aime acknowledges that consumers have a wide range of entertainment options. Nintendo, he says, must provide better entertainment experiences so that people keep flocking to its games and devices.
So far, they are. While demand for the handheld DS has slowed over the past year, those in the industry are claiming that’s only because people have been holding out for the 3DS. As of Dec 31, Nintendo had sold about 145 million units of the DS in all its iterations worldwide. Demand for the 3DS is expected to be even more brisk during its first year on sale than for previous iterations, such as the DSi, which went on sale in 2008.
The Wii, which hit store shelves in 2006 for $250 (it is now $200), was often sold out or in short supply as recently as last February. It’s not clear yet whether this will be the case with 3DS, but buzz says demand has been strong based on the number of reported pre-orders.
The 3DS isn’t Nintendo’s first foray into 3D gaming. In 1995, it launched the Virtual Boy, which required bulky headgear and displayed all images in red. It bombed and Nintendo soon discontinued it. But it didn’t give up on 3D.
The technology used to create 3D images on the 3DS is not new. Called a “parallax barrier” LCD screen, it works as if two sets of thin blinds were laid over the screen, so that your eyes each see a different version of the image. Your brain then puts them together, creating the 3D effect. Because it only works if the viewer is at a certain place in relation to the screen, this technology is better suited to hand-held devices than TV sets.
As entertainment technology, 3D doesn’t have a long track record of appeal to the mass market. It’s been possible to play computer games in 3D for years, with the help of glasses, but they have never caught on. People are willing to pay extra to see 3D movies, but they haven’t helped overall box office receipts.
Nintendo notes that the 3D effect is adjustable (and can be turned off completely, too), which could help those prone to headaches from 3D. Nintendo hopes that, along with the lack of glasses, will make the 3DS appealing to a broad range of people.
Photo credit: Melinda Seckington / Flickr. Video Credit: IGN
