Nintendo to Launch 3D Gaming Handheld in 2011

I think it’s clear by this point that companies of all stripes are taking this whole “3D” thing very seriously, from display vendors to content producers to even GPU manufacturers like NVIDIA. When thinking of 3D though, most people (rightfully so) picture a huge TV, and possibly some funky glasses. Nintendo sees things a bit differently, and aims to deliver a 3D experience on its… Nintendo DS.

Yes, that’s right, 3D on a handheld gaming device. The best part? Nintendo is planning to make this happen without the need for glasses, which is a rare path to take today. How the company plans to pull this off is currently unknown, but with E3 right around the corner (mid-June), we could assume that we’ll learn a lot more there.

The Nintendo “3DS” isn’t going to go on sale anytime soon, but it should hit the market before the company’s fiscal year ends next March. As we found out during our NVIDIA 3D Vision contest last month, there are a lot of people who are excited about 3D in general, from gaming to movies and in some cases, even images.

I am one of those people who can’t see in 3D, unfortunately, but the majority of people can, so it’s understandable why companies, especially Nintendo, are dedicating so many efforts to support it. But the 3DS is a unique beast, because to my knowledge, it’s the first I’ve heard of a mobile device that will support 3D, and the fact that it won’t require glasses makes things all the more interesting.

I guess this begs for a question. Even if 3D is important to you, or will be in the future, could you imagine it being a big deal on a device that has a screen at just 3 – 4 inches?

Tuesday’s announcement marks a new direction for the Japanese-based company, which had previously been dismissive of 3-D gaming. Earlier this year, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said, ”I have doubts whether people will be wearing glasses to play games at home. How is that going to look to other people?” The new 3DS device is expected to be backwards compatible, allowing it to play DS and DSi games. The 3DS name itself is a temporary name until the official name is revealed at the E3 convention.