Trinen on the 3DS’ eShop, 3DSWare, region-locking, battery life, movies, and more
Bill Trinen on the 3DS’ launch games…
At today’s event, we’re only talking about the launch window. In terms of the day-to-day titles, we’ll probably be going into that in the next few months, closer to launch.
Trinen on if the eShop is coming later…
“Yeah, obviously, I mean we showed the video of the store today — it proved that it has a lot more features on this version than on Wii and Nintendo DSi. In terms of how or when it’s going to be available, that’s an announcement for another day.”
Trinen on whether or not he thinks the eShop will be available before E3…
“Today we’re really focused on the price announcement, the launch window time frame, and then in terms of specific announcements on each title in the shop, we’ll do that as we get closer to launch. We need to save some limits for later.”
Trinen on whether or not there will be 3DSWare games available right away…
“We’ll probably talk about that when we go into more detail about the shop itself and when that will be available and what it will come with. Today we showed a couple of Virtual Console games — Link’s Awakening DX and Super Mario Land — those are both examples of the possibilities of content we’re showing in Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. But in terms of specifically what digital content is going to be available, that’s all going be part of an announcement that’s closer to launch.”
Trinen on how DSiWare transfers will work…
“There will be an application that will allow you to transfer your Nintendo DSiWare to a Nintendo 3DS. We’ll go into more detail on that… the shop and all that, we’ll talk about that in one big announcement.”
Trinen on whether or not 3DSWare is restricted to the 3DS you download it on…
“That would be similar [to] how Nintendo DSi works… Correct. Once you’ve bought it, it’s for the system you bought it on.”
Trinen on 3DS region-locking…
“There’s a number of different factors that go into it. One of the primary ones is that we have parental controls built into the system and region-locking allows us to use parental controls with different rating codes in each country, since the rating codes are different in each region… Well actually with Nintendo DSi, the system was region-locked, and obviously Wii is region-locked, our home consoles have always been. I mean, I guess if you’re really intent on playing [Japanese content], then you can get a Japanese 3DS.”
Trinen on the 3DS’ battery life…
“3-5 hours is… a good expectation [if] you’re using the system and all of its features. The screen itself is what uses most of the battery life. There will be some opportunity to adjust your screen [brightness], but 3-5 hours is a good range. Knowing that [3-D] would have a bigger impact on the battery life than was normal, that’s the primary reason we’ve included the charging cradle. The charging cradle is going to make it very easy for people to carry the system with them, and as soon as they’re home it’s not a matter of having to plug anything or find anything — you just plug it into the cradle and charge right away. Yeah. You can play while it’s charging… If you turn the 3-D completely off, that may lengthen the battery life somewhat.”
Trinen on movie plans for the 3DS…
“Obviously, today we showed trailers of Yogi Bear in 3-D, and also a new movie called Born To Be Wild 3-D which was actually not CG but live action — pretty cool scenery of nature and animals and things like that. Those are a demonstration of the system’s 3-D video playback capabilities. We’re still obviously discussing what the SpotPass content is going to be, and how all that’s going to work, and looking at what our options are for 3-D video content in general. What we showed today is an example of, this is how we do it, this is how great it looks. The announcements will be revealed as we get closer to launch.”
