Nintendo’s next handheld system is 3DS

Believe it or not, Nintendo’s next handheld system has been confirmed. This information comes before a real, true official announcement was made. The main attraction with the upcoming portable is that it will be capable of producing 3D experiences without the need for glasses. You can check out a few other details below…

– New portable hardware
– Successor to the DS (unlike the DS Lite/DSi/DSi XL)
– Will be officially announced at E3
– Backwards compatible with DS, DSi
– Releasing before fiscal 2011

March 23, 2010

To Whom It May Concern:
Re: Launch of New Portable Game Machine

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Minami-ward of Kyoto-city, President Satoru Iwata) will launch “Nintendo 3DS”(temp) during the fiscal year ending March 2011, on which games can be enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses.

“Nintendo 3DS”(temp) is going to be the new portable game machine to succeed “Nintendo DS series”, whose cumulative consolidated sales from Nintendo amounted to 125million units as of the end of December 2009, and will include backward compatibility so that the software for Nintendo DS series, including the ones for Nintendo DSi, can also be enjoyed.

We are planning to announce additional details at E3 show, which is scheduled to be held from June 15, 2010 at Los Angeles in the U.S.

There’s also some speculation about other details, some of which we’ve mentioned before. The notes below supposedly have been confirmed by developers working with the hardware at this year’s GDC, but we’ll have to wait for E3 to know for sure!

– 2 screens, gap between the two is extremely small
– Larger/higher resolution screens
– Powered by nVidia Tegra
– About as powerful as a GameCube (and is similar to program for)
– Takes carts like the DS
– Will be released this year in at least one territory
– Will have an accelerometer

Thanks to Thomas N for the news tip!