Nintendo released a metric ton of official details on the 3DS at a press conference in Tokyo last night, including the Japanese release date (February 26, 2011) and price of ¥25,000 (about $300). The North American release date isn’t as exact: we’ll see the system in March of next year. The final version of the hardware was also shown, although the only difference from the systems we used at E3 seems to be the color of the analog nub.
A few other fun surprises were announced; let’s check ’em out.
This is excellent news, and something we put on our list of things that would help make the 3DS a good deal for gamers. Some software may not be able to make the jump from system to system, and the number of times you can move your games may be limited, but this is still good news.
The system will come with a charging stand, a stylus, a 2GB SD card for storage, and cards that, when viewed through the front-facing camera, become augmented reality images. A promotional video released by Nintendo shows off some of the new software features, such as wireless communication between systems and the ability to create Miis by taking pictures of yourself.
“3DS will also perform some neat new tricks. It has backlit face buttons—one of which is the Home button,”Joystiq reports. “When pressed, it will bring up an in-game menu enabling users to browse the web, turn WiFi on/off and modify other settings without exiting.”
Nintendo also released footage from upcoming 3DS titles. Take a look:
Hopefully, we’ll get an official release date and price from Nintendo of America soon, but the price should be in line with Japan’s. That seems a little on the expensive side for a Nintendo system, but the 3DS is packing some impressive hardware, and we don’t know the price Nintendo is paying for those 3D screens.
Having played the 3DS extensively at E3, the hardware is worth the price, and the games already look great. Still, the $300 price tag is going to be a bitter pill to swallow for gamers given this rough economy. We’ll post more details as they come in.
By Ben Kuchera
original post: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/09/3ds-hits-japan-on-february-26-for-300-comes-to-us-in-march-1.ars