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The Nintendo 3DS is an upcoming handheld game console by Nintendo, which can produce "3D effects without the need for any special glasses." Scheduled for release in the fiscal year ending March 2011, the handheld will succeed the Nintendo DS series of handhelds,[1] which primarily shares the handheld console market with Sony's PSP (PlayStation Portable). The Nintendo 3DS will feature backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software.

Announcing the handheld on March 23, 2010, Nintendo plans to announce additional details at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), scheduled to begin on June 15. Nintendo will invite people to play with the handheld at the show. According to industry analysts, the timing of Nintendo's announcement, which has drawn attention away from the launch of the company's still-new Nintendo DSi XL handheld, was likely intended to preempt impending news leaks about the product by the Japanese press.

According to Japanese industry news website Nikkei.com, Nintendo plans to include "a 3-D joystick and a force feedback system" in the Nintendo 3DS, for which the company acquired related patents at the end of 2009. The website states that Nintendo is also considering incorporating an accelerometer for features such as tilt control, and that the Nintendo 3DS will feature "significant improvements" in wireless communication and battery life while providing compatibility with Nintendo DS series software.

Nikkei.com reports that the screens for the Nintendo 3DS "will likely be no larger than 4 inches". The 3D effects for the Nintendo 3DS are currently speculated to be based on autosteroscopic imagery generated by liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with parallax barrier technology. According to Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, the Nintendo 3DS will likely consist of autostereoscopic 3D LCD panels by Sharp Corporation. An announcement by Sharp of a new 3.4-inch autostereoscopic touchscreen on April 2 (shortly after the announcement of the Nintendo 3DS) has led to speculation that it will be the same screen used in the Nintendo 3DS.

It had also been speculated that Nintendo 3DS would use displays by Hitachi, based on the fact that the company furnishes LCD screens for the Nintendo DSi, and already produces a mobile phone (the Wooo H001) in Japan featuring a 3.1-inch autostereoscopic display. According to consumer technology blog Engadget, both Hitachi and Sharp are to build the displays for the Nintendo 3DS.

Nintendo 3DS: The Details
• You won't need to wear 3D glasses to enjoy the 3D effects. This may work like Rittai Kakushi e Attakoreda, the Nintendo DSi game that uses the frontal camera to track the viewer eyes. By tracking the user's eyes—a trick first shown by Johnny Chung Lee's Wii hack—the machine can alter the perspective in the game to make it look as if the player is looking into a 3D virtual space.
• It's unclear if this would be the only 3D element in the console.
• Backwards compatibility will be incorporated for DS and DSi games support.
• It may have an accelerometer for tilt-controls with motion-led gaming, just like the iPhone/iPod Touch.
• The screen might be higher-res than anything we've seen from Nintendo before, maybe reaching 720p—and measuring around the same size as the DS.
• It'll have two screens just like previous portables, but they'll be used in conjunction as one giant screen, according to RPAD.tv, who convinced developers to talk to them at GDC.
• A Tegra chip could be powering it.
• Nintendo might put a 3G sim in, for over-the-air downloads.
• Those over-the-air downloads might include ebooks, something already seen on the DSi XL.

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