PSP World

Nintendo 3DS: What We Know So Far

Nintendo of Japan has revealed that the company is hard at work on a true successor to the Nintendo DS. This new device, tentatively called the 3DS, will feature a 3-dimensional visual effect without the need for special glasses. The company announced the new machine in a short press release sent out this week, and promises that we will be able to get some more details and hands-on time with the device at this year's E3 event in June. The original press release, which was short on details, made two things abundantly clear: the 3DS is a technological leap beyond the current generation of DS hardware, but it will maintain the same dual-screen appearance and support backwards compatibility for DS and DSi games.

Some additional details have slipped out, mainly from developers who have had early testing time with the device. First of all and most importantly, the device is much more powerful than the current generation hardware. It has been compared in capabilities to the gamecube, giving it the ability to render much more realistic images and complex scenes. The device is rumored to be powered by NVidia's Tegra chip, the same hardware acceleration that is used in the powerful Zune HD.

While it retains the familiar dual-screen format, the new screens are slightly larger and higher resolution than their older counterparts. Some sources are saying that the screens are wider and measure approximately 3.8" diagonal (the existing DSi has 3.25" screens).

An accelerometer is also rumored to be part of the feature set, which would make sense considering Nintendo's success with the motion-sensing Wii console.

How long do we have to wait for the 3DS to arrive in shops? Not long if you are lucky enough to be Japanese. The 3DS will launch in Japan this December, to be followed about 5 months later with a worldwide roll-out. Presumably this is because Nintendo expects to sell so freaking many of them that it will take that long to build enough supply. So, set your time-traveling chairs for May 2011, and get ready to join the 3D handheld generation.

An artist's rendering of Nintendo's new 3D handheld.