Nintendo Still Silent on 3DS Movie Specifics

Nintendo of America (NOA) remained mum on specifics about the 3D movies that it plans to make available on its coming 3DS handheld videogame system. But President Reggie Fils-Aime said Wednesday at a news briefing that the device will ship in the U.S. March 27 at $249.99. The company and its Japanese parent haven’t said whether 3D movies for the device, which offers stereoscopic 3D effects without the need for special glasses, will be available through downloads or packaged media.

Nintendo also hasn’t said what movies will be made available for the 3DS. The only non-game video content that NOA showed Wednesday were 3D movie trailers. Hands-on demonstrations were provided for the coming Imax/Warner Bros. theatrical release Born to Be Wild and the current theatrical release Yogi Bear from Warner Bros.

At a separate news conference, Nintendo Europe said it will ship the 3DS just ahead of the U.S. launch, on March 25, at unspecified pricing although a Nintendo U.K. spokesman said retailers were taking pre-orders at 219-229 pounds sterling. NOA aims to launch the 3DS in Latin America on March 27, but the date may slip a little, Bill van Zyll, director and general manager of NOA in Latin America, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Prices will vary by country in Latin America, he said. Earlier, Nintendo had said the 3DS would ship Feb. 26 at about $299 in Japan, and the device would then ship in March in North America (CED Sept 30 p8) and Europe.

Of the 4 million 3DS systems that Nintendo had said it will ship this fiscal year, through March 31, 1.5 million will be in Japan and the other 2.5 million will be split between Europe and the Americas, Nintendo of America spokesman Charlie Scibetta told us Wednesday. The company isn’t saying how the 2.5 million will be divided, he said. But the U.S. is the world’s No. 1 videogame market and Europe is No. 2. So nearly 1.5 million probably will be allocated for the U.S. and about 1 million for Europe, the rest going to other countries. M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon predicted that about 1.5 million will be made available in the U.S. at launch, in line with previous releases of Nintendo systems.

The U.S. price will be about $50 less than some analysts and other industry observers have predicted. Pidgeon and Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter told us they had expected the 3DS to cost about $300 in the U.S., partly because that’s what Nintendo previously said it would cost in Japan. Nintendo would have been able to “sell as many as they want at $299,” which means the company is “leaving money on the table” in the U.S., Pachter said. But Pachter said NOA is “smart” to make the product available at the more consumer-friendly price. Like Pidgeon, Pachter predicted that NOA will sell as many as it can ship at launch. Pachter predicted 3DS systems will sell on eBay for $1,000 at first, much like what happened with the Wii. Focus groups indicated that many consumers thought the 3DS was worth $300-$400, Fils-Aime said.

Scibetta also gave the most definitive statement yet from Nintendo on 3DS region coding, telling us that games -- including downloads -- will be region-locked and playable only on the U.S. version of the system. A Nintendo U.K. spokesman said early this week that the 3DS will be “available in three versions,” one for each of the main videogame markets, and there’s “the possibility that … software sold in one region will not function properly when running on Nintendo 3DS hardware sold in another” (CED Jan 19 p2).

The 3DS will be available in the U.S. in a choice of “cosmo black” or “aqua blue” and come with a 2-GB SD memory card, Fils-Aime said. More than 30 games from Nintendo and third-party publishers will ship for the 3DS in its “launch window” from March 27 to the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, June 7-9, he said.

"More than 5,000 interactive” 3DS demonstration units will be delivered to retailers for the U.S. launch, and mobile demonstrations will reach “nearly 400,000” consumers “during an eight-week launch campaign,” Fils-Aime said. He said he expects more than 1 million consumers to see the 3DS via the promotions this summer.

NOA also elaborated on some of the device’s non-3D features, although the company remained silent regarding specifics of the autostereoscopic 3D system used. An industry source told us last year that Sharp was supplying the panels and parallax barrier 3D technology for the 3DS, but neither Nintendo nor Sharp has confirmed that (CED March 25 p1). Japanese chip maker Digital Media Professionals said last year that Nintendo “adopted” its 3D Graphics IP “PICA200” graphics processor for the 3DS (CED June 22 p8).

The device also features a built-in motion sensor and gyro sensor that NOA said Wednesday can react to the motion and tilt of the system. Also featured are three digital cameras, one facing the user for self-photography and two outward-facing ones that enable 3D photography. The cameras, however, like those used in the current DSi and DSi XL, don’t offer high resolution. Providing specifications for the first time, NOA said the resolutions are 640 x 480 pixels for each camera and the active pixel count is about 300,000 total.

A StreetPass feature allows game information to be exchanged between 3DS systems as they pass each other. “Small packets of information can be exchanged using this data-transfer method, such as Mii character data, maps for games or high scores and custom character data for different games,” NOA said. SpotPass is a feature that Nintendo had said enables the device to connect to compatible public hotspots and through a wireless broadband Internet connection at home, even when the system is in sleep mode. Once connected, the 3DS will “receive new content and updates on a regular basis,” NOA said.

The 3DS will come loaded with the game Face Raiders, which takes advantage of its cameras, as well as activity log, pedometer and Mii Maker applications, Fils-Aime said. In Face Raiders, players “shoot at funny depictions of their own faces,” NOA said. When the 3DS is put into sleep mode, it can “act as a pedometer while letting users earn Play Coins for the steps they take that can then be traded in for additional content in compatible games and applications,” the company said. Through the device’s Activity Log, 3DS users “can check their steps as well as their play time,” it said. The Mii Maker application gives 3DS users new tools to create Mii characters more easily than before, NOA said, adding that users can either import Mii characters from their Wii consoles using an SD memory card or use the camera to take a picture of a person and have an automatic Mii character created. Users can save Mii characters to an SD card as pictures, which “enables them to be used any way a digital photo would for personal use, such as a profile picture on social-networking sites,” NOA said. The device will also be able to play MP3 and AAC music files.

An upgraded Internet browser will be available through a system update, NOA said. Via a system update, the Nintendo eShop, meanwhile, will offer access to downloadable games, including Nintendo DSiWare and titles specifically made for the 3DS, NOA said. As the Virtual Console service for the Wii makes games from older systems available for download to that system, Virtual Console games for the 3DS will be “classic” Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, it said. The eShop “will use a cash-based system,” and users can opt to input credit card information in the shop or buy a 3DS prepaid card at retailers, it said. Friend codes for the 3DS will be “specific to each Nintendo 3DS system, not each game,” NOA said, explaining that when friends trade hardware codes, “at any time they can check their friends list to see which of their friends are online and what they are playing."

The 3DS will also come with six augmented-reality cards, NOA said. When the two outer cameras are pointed at the AR cards, the cameras read the cards and superimpose images and animation onto the scene, it said.

Built-in parental controls can be used by 3DS buyers “to limit Internet access or some of the wireless functions,” NOA also said. With a PIN code, parents will be able to turn off the system’s 3D function, or “limit the ratings of the games that their kids can play,” NOA said. Any user can use the 3DS’s previously announced Depth Slider to scale down the system’s 3D level or switch to 2D.

The 3DS will be compatible with all DS game cards, although the games will remain in their original 2D, NOA said. A service will be provided at an unspecified time after the 3DS launch that will allow DSi and DSi XL owners to transfer games downloaded from the Nintendo DSi Shop onto the 3DS, NOA also said.

The device will be able to run about three to five hours on a charge of its lithium ion battery when playing 3DS software and about 5-8 hours when playing DS titles, NOA said. But it said battery duration “differs depending on the brightness setting of the screen."

Games that will be released during the launch window will include Pilotwings Resort, nintendogs + cats and Steel Diver from Nintendo. The company is also developing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising and new entries in the Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Paper Mario series for the 3DS, NOA said. Third-party titles that it said are “coming soon” to the device include Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked from Atlus, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D from Capcom, Madden NFL Football from EA Sports, The Sims 3 from Electronic Arts, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D from Konami, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars from LucasArts, Ridge Racer 3D and Dual Pen Sports from Namco Bandai Games America, Super Monkey Ball 3D, Thor: God of Thunder and Crush 3D from Sega, Bust-A-Move Universe from Square Enix, Samurai Warriors Chronicles and Dead or Alive Dimensions from Tecmo Koei America, and Asphalt 3D, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars, Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D, Rayman 3D and Rabbids Travel in Time from Ubisoft. Several of the games were demonstrated to reporters and analysts and made available to play on Wednesday -- more than were shown at E3 last year.