3DS contains impressive piracy protection

THQ’s VP of global publishing, Ian Curran, made mention in a recent interview that he is impressed and excited with the anti-piracy capabilities of Nintendo’s new handheld.

“What excites me even more [than 3DS games] is that there’s technology built in that device to really combat piracy,” said Curran.

“The problem with the DS market in the last few years, particularly with the DS Lite, is that it’s just been attacked by piracy. It’s made it almost impossible to shift any significant volume. The DSi combated it a little bit, but the 3DS has taken that a step further.”

That’s nice and all, but the one thing you should never do is tempt the modding community.  These type of interviews always persuade hackers to try even harder to defeat the system.  Not that I’m complaining because personally I think there is a ton of use for being able to mod these systems such as all the awesome homebrew stuff that is created for it.  It isn’t always about pirated games, folks.  Anyway, I’m sure Nintendo has looked a lot into the mistakes of the DS to create a better protection scheme, but like anything, don’t expect it to be uncrackable.

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Nintendo makes big splash with 3DS

It has been known for awhile that Nintendo was working on a portable 3D device and while we had a lot of specs, nothing was certain until the big N announced it during their keynote.  So exactly what can we expect from the 3DS?

3DS prototype?

It seems that possible images of a prototype board for Nintendo’s new handheld, the 3DS, have been making their way around the Internet today.  They were submitted by Nintendo and Mitsumi to the FCC for filing purposes.  In fact, they were filed back on April 30th but no one really paid much attention to it until recently.  Although it was taken down, there is a screen or two (like the one above) floating around.  Obviously, a prototype isn’t going to be the final design especially considering this looks like a somewhat big motherboard for a handheld device.  It isn’t concrete as to whether or not this is the actual prototype for the 3DS, but there are some things relevant.

The obvious thing here is that this prototype contains two screens — one being a widescreen (fans rejoice).  What’s interesting about that is that the rumors of the screen type being used for the new system.  A 3.4-inch parallax barrier display coming from Sharp.  They are the company that is rumored to be creating the 3D screen for the new handheld and this about matches it.  This device is also dubbed the “CTR”.  While it’s a generic codename as far as we know, it does kind of match the codes that Nintendo has used in the past.  The DSi was referred to as “TWL” and the DSi XL as “UTL”.  The biggest evidence here is that somewhere in the FCC report there is a request from Nintendo that states that this information is not to be made public for 180 days.  That request takes us near the holiday shopping season.  Add it all together and it appears like we have ourselves first prototype images of the 3DS.

I’m sure we’ll hear more very soon especially with its unveiling at E3 next month.

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3DS will have 2D ability

As Nintendo’s new handheld system keeps gaining hype as we look forward to E3, some news has been leaking out here and there.  We already know that the system will use backwards compatibility for DS owners, which makes the appeal of the system very nice.  Another concern however was over its 3D ability.  Obviously 3D is becoming the newest thing and Nintendo is capitalizing on it.  But not everyone likes the idea of using 3D because of various reasons (eye problems, headaches, etc.)  Well fear not Nintendo fans, the 3DS is going to offer a switchable 3D ability.  This basically means that you don’t need to play the games in 3D if you don’t want to.

This is excellent news for those who were a bit weary of jumping to Nintendo’s new system.  We’ll find out all there is to know in June with E3 right around the corner.

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Models, Revisions, Add-ons are all the rage – A perspective

In a previous article I discussed the peripheral craze and how it can be incredibly ridiculous at times.  That got me thinking though, what about all the madness involved with console models, hardware add-ons, and rebranded names?  This isn’t anything new although we are presented with quite a few options in our console shopping now more than ever.  We aren’t limited on just one thing or another, and although it isn’t anything near the options of PC’s, there are choices.  When it comes to home consoles though, is this really a good thing?

The successor to the DS – The 3DS

Nintendo has announced that their next portable gaming machine will be called, the 3DS.  The information was found on Nintendo’s Japanese website which had a press release stating some small information about their next portable device.

It states that the 3DS (which is a temporary name) will use 3D effects without the use of any special glasses.  Considering the popularity in 3D this year, this is probably a wise move by Nintendo.  However, I’d like to know what they have in mind to pull it off without any external peripherals.

The launch date for the 3DS is expected to be around March of 2011.  But don’t worry, we won’t have to wait too long before we get a lot more detailed information on the 3DS.  The press release states that Nintendo will be announcing additional details at E3 in June.

Well, we’ve heard reports back at GDC about the next Nintendo portable and it seems like they weren’t far from the mark.  I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be released this year as that just wouldn’t make much financial sense to Nintendo.  Although announcing it now is a bit strange as the DS XL is being released on March 28th.  I would think this announcement could cut into some sales of their latest DS edition.  But either way, it is official that Nintendo is planning on launching their next portable next year and that it will include some cool features.  I can’t wait to find out more at E3!

Press Release

DS 2 information leaked?

Although the DS is still selling very strong with all of its 900 versions, there has been a bit of information leaked about the eventual DS 2.  Raymond Padilla was at GDC this year and managed to gather some information about the upcoming portable.