14 DAY TRIAL // The Nintendo 3DS, the company's next big handheld, didn't have 3D technology until very late in its development, according to one of the project's main managers.
Nintendo is set to take the handheld console market by storm with the release of the 3DS, largely because it's going to be the first mass-market glasses-free 3D device ever launched.
According to Hideki Konno, Nintendo's group manager for the 3DS hardware project, the 3D technology was added onto the device late in its development cycle, after he got involved with it.
"The first time I heard from [Nintendo president Satoru] Iwata and Miyamoto about this was just after I wrapped up Mario Kart Wii and got started working on DSi Sound," Konno said. "They showed me this piece of hardware which later became the 3DS and said 'Here's what we're working on right now.'"
Nintendo already tried to implement 3D technology into gaming through the infamous Virtual Boy, and was extremely reluctant to attempt it ever again.
That changed when the company was shown some "impressive" glasses-free 3D tech early in 2009, which resulted in Nintendo adopting it for the device.
"It was the right time to start thinking about using the latest in high-tech and try out glasses-free 3D," said Konno. "The technology we got to demo was really impressive, and starting in early 2009, we began to think that it was time to bring it to games."
Other features, including the gyroscope or accelerometer were also added very late into the console's development stage, just before the E3 conference last year, when the Nintendo 3DS was showcased to the public for the first time.
Konno declined to reveal what other features were scrapped from the device during its development, so who knows what other plans Nintendo had with what is now the 3DS.
The 3D-enabled handheld will be put on sale on February 26 in Japan, March 25, in Europe, and March 27 in North America.