Nintendo has announced that the revision of the Nintendo DS console is to incorporate 3D technology.
The company claims that the system, codenamed the Nintendo 3DS, will incorporate 3D effects “without the need for any special glasses” and that further details will be revealed at the computer games expo E3 in June this year.
Originally released in 2004 the Nintendo DS has sold over 125 million consoles worldwide and has been rereleased three times as the DS Lite, DSi and most recently the larger size DSi XL.
The Nintendo 3DS will also include backwards compatibility so that all games released for the DS and DSi will work on the system.
Companies have recently started experimenting with 3D after the success of films such as “Avatar”. The video game tie-in for the film released for PCs could be played in 3D with the right combination of graphics card, monitor and 3D glasses kit.
Nintendo has also experimented with 3D before. In 1995 the company released the Virtual Boy, the first console to incorporate any 3D technology. The system is best known for the black and red colour of both its goggles and the graphics of the games, and was a failure commercially.
No details about the technology used in the Nintendo 3DS have been announced yet but will be revealed in the coming months.