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CHEAP RIVAL: Angry Birds BY this time next week we should know the specifics of Nintendo?s 3DS, the promised 3D version of their big-selling handheld. Rumours about the console?s price and availability have been rife since Nintendo first announced its new version back in September. According to one source, the UK price will be around ?200, with a release date in March. But, as that source is ?the
internet?, it?s just as likely to be ?100 with a release date some time in 2017. In short, no one has any idea.
What is interesting is how effective the 3D element of the console will be. Again, speculation is rife but we do know the user will not need 3D glasses.
There is a game out in Japan called 3D Hidden Picture that uses the cameras on the DSi to recognise the tilting of the handheld to provide a 3D effect within the screen.
This seems the most likely, just with a bit more power behind it. I?ll no doubt be briefing you on exactly the opposite next Sunday.
A lot will depend on the games. Nintendo president Satoru
Iwata recently stated there will be eight titles ready for launch ? a list thought to include Ridge Racer 3D, PES and a new Professor Layton. We?ll see.
How will the 3DS fare in the market place? The popularity of the original DS and its subsequent versions is beyond doubt, selling more than 135million worldwide. Yet the original DS didn?t have the iPad to contend with, let alone the several other tablets hitting the shops in the next few months or the raft of smartphones currently available.
Of course the iPad, along with smartphones, is much more than a games machine but it still plays games ? and in spectacular HD.
Titles are also cheap on the iPad.
The hugely popular Angry Birds has sold more than 12 million copies and costs nothing more than a couple of quid on iTunes. How will the 3DS cope with such competition?
Probably quite well with youngsters. A ?400 iPad is hardly the type of toy a teen strolls to school with. For adults it?s probably different. Given the choice between breaking out a DS on the train (albeit a 3D version) or a slick tablet that offers games, books, e-mail and internet, there?s only going to be one winner.
Still, it?s a new toy for us all to get excited about and (just in case I haven?t rammed this home during the past three weeks) indicates the importance of 3D in the future of gaming.
Nintendo ? over to you...
