Nintendo 3DS and my feature Wish-List

Posted by Charbax – March 23, 2010

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The Nintendo 3DS has now been announced by Nintendo in this official press release:

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 125 million 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.

I’m a big fan of Nintendo, while I would be very impressed if this 3D screen technology (rumored to be Sharp/Hitachi’s parallax barrier) actually doesn’t look like some blurry crap, which is my opinion of all the 3D screens that I have seen at consumer electronic shows so far these past few years, with and without glasses. Here are my feature wish-list for Nintendo’s next portable game console:

- It should be possible to deactivate the 3D screen effect and the screen must be just as clear as the market’s best LCD screens

- Game downloads, Nintendo needs to be bold and provide $1 Game downloads, for all games, including affordable $15/month game subscription plans that gives access to all the games. Online games means they get updated often and new games could even be streamed when they are based on pre-installed game engines.

- 3G module for extra $50, there should be a module slot in the back of the device where users should be able to add such things as a modem for 3G and its SIM card. The 3G module shoulds be unlocked so anny SIM card on any carrier can be used.

- Android OS, Nintendo surely has enough money and power to do their own OS if they want. I would find it much more interesting if Nintendo was so courageous and simply base their next portable on Android. At the same time announce that games will work on other Android phones that have graphics hardware acceleration. This would instantly add thousands of apps to the platform and make all UI and feature design work compatible with the rest of the industry.

- SD card slot but perhaps even a built-in hard drive compartment. Adding a 1.8″ or 2.5″ hard drive in the back of the device could be really cool to thus have enough storage for hundreds of big games, videos and music.

- HDMI output, this should basically be even more powerful than the Wii in terms of graphics outputting full 720p and 1080p games to HDTVs.

- At least dual 4″ screens, perhaps a larger version with dual 4.8″ screens. The screens should be close enough to each other so when the device is opened or put on a table, it would look like one big screen.

- Keyboard add-on should cover one screen and thus turn the device into a pocketable laptop form factor. The keyboard should be foldable, thus providing a full sized keyboard typing speed.

- Nintendo should do the marketing for using it for VOIP and IM, it should be compatible with SIP, Skype, Google Voice, video-conferencing and more. Over WiFi and 3G and even other networks as the modem module shall be replacable with other networking technologies. Thus Nintendo should market this as a replacement for smartphones.

- Full video codecs playback at up to 1080p and full bitrates also for high profile. Somehow video playback battery runtime should be at least 10 hours. Youtube HD support should be included.

- Pixel Qi screens so the Nintendo portable can be used for reading, with 50 or more hours of battery runtime. Comon Nintendo, when you order 100 million screens, you can make any screen technology you want. Be the first to announce 4.8″ Pixel Qi LCD screens. Including even that 3D layer on top if you want.

- Usable for education. Instead of teachers and schools banning the Nintendo DS from the classrooms (I’ve seen this happen for some of my young cousins), Nintendo should work to include the hardware in class rooms. Thus it needs educational contents, it needs to provide productivity such as the web browsing and text input needs to provide a full speed experience.

- Pricing should be below $200, preferably $150 without the 3G module.

What do you think?

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  • Down to earth

    LOL step away from the crack pipe is what I think. Everything you outlined would cost $400-500 at minimum and Nintendo dont make loss leading devices they have to turn a profit on each one sold.

    Not to mention the insane notion of using Android a bloated OS for a dedicated games machine and allowing other hardware to use the games made for it thats just crazy.

    10hour battery, 1080p full bitrate video, HDMI outputs, PixeQI screens seriously…. ???

  • Nealtendo

    Pretty good wish list, but when you say all that should be priced below $200, you might as well ask for it to include a teleporter and a time machine.

    A more practical with list would include the following:

    Accelerometer for tilt control game play

    Analog joystick/controller (maybe something that can be stuck in center of left-right-up-down buttons)

    Better cameras (1 mega pixel at least)

    Higher resolution screens (same as iphone/itouch)

    Add back the slot in front for rumble pack, 3G module, louder speakers, GBA games, pico projector,

    Video output/jack is fine (at the higher resolutions of new screens, even HD if possible)

    Make (and encourage others to develop) all games with single-card download play ability

    360 degree full back flip top clamshell (more durable/no backwards breaking plus more compact for bottom screen games)

  • http://armdevices.net/ Charbax

    OpenGL hardware acceleration of Android 2.0 and newer phones is powerful enough to emulate any Nintendo game console from NES to N64. So obviously Nintendo will eventually have to officially allow those devices to play all those Nintendo games. And given the potential billions of dollars of revenues which they could make selling games to Android devices just by selling each game for $1, it would be illegal for Nintendo towards the law that they have to maximize profits to their shareholders not to open up the games to more devices.

    Android is the opposite of bloat when it comes to OS. And if Nintendo thinks Android is too bloated for 3DS. they can simply spend their software investment in simplifying a version of Android for their portable games console. The fact is that if Nintendo thinks it can force a new OS like the one on DSi onto the market in terms of getting third party developers to add useful applications to the device, that is just not a possibility.

    Everything I said can be mass manufactured for less than $200. You have to consider Nintendo is selling hundreds of millions of these devices, so basically, whatever they want to do, they can have it done for cheap. It's just a question of what their engineers are able to do and what their business people decide should be done. Sometimes business people decide that removing features is the best way to optimize profits.

  • http://armdevices.net/ Charbax

    The iphone/ipod touch screen is not high resolution at 480×360. Nintendo should go for 800×480 at least. And a mini-HDMI output would be standard to integrate.

  • TechNick

    Yeah, about 80% of what you suggested above has absolutely no chance of happening. You have to remember, this is Nintendo. This is the same company who took 2 low res screens and threw in a low tech touch screen and turned it into what is close to becoming the best selling system in history. This is also the company who took what was essentially a GameCube, gave it a small processor boost and came up with a new controller design (new, not revolutionary) and managed to have it outsell both of it's competitors. Both of which spent millions in R&D for the most powerful graphics processors and advanced architectures.

    There is almost no chance Nintendo will do anything listed above. It's just not in their character. Nintendo isn't even going to consider HD anything for this, no doubt. There is no way they will make it more powerful than the Wii, but I can see it being on par with the GameCube (which many early leaks are hinting towards). Thats how their handheld line seems to go when speaking in terms of power.

    GB/GBC = NES
    GBA = SNES
    Nintendo DS = SNES/Nintendo 64 (2 ARM processors for each)

    So the next logical step, considering this really is a true successor, would be for the system to match GameCube in terms of power.

  • http://armdevices.net/ Charbax

    There is no cost savings in using a non-HD platform for their new portable console. For the Wii, NDS it was different. In 2006, Nintendo needed to take whatever technology was available then to sell for less than $200 in retail stores.

    In terms of Nintendo shifting towards the games-download business model instead of only-retail, Nintendo has slowly shifted towards that with their 2006 Wii and 2009 NDSi hardware with the Wii Ware and DSi Ware. And surely the time is right for them to make significant revenues from selling the games directly to consumers for much cheaper prices per game and dropping the intermediaries. It's a big step though, and it could be a risky one, as retailers and resellers can feel threatened by Nintendo openly changing distribution tactics with the next console.

    I also am sure Nintendo sees the potential threat of smart phones getting more and more video games, so Nintendo might just as well include 3G and VOIP in its next portable console, at least as an option, and thus counter-attack the smart phones with their own consumer-friendly communications services. And use the competitors smart phones as marketing platforms for their games, and make a billion dollars selling old games at $1 a piece and official Nintendo emulators in the Google marketplace and Apple Appstore.

    Anyways, it's just going to be a matter of who's in charge at Nintendo and who gets to make the decisions. They have to maximize profits, it's a question of how they think they can most optimize that profit. They can be conservative about it and keep doing their walled garden retail market platforms or they can decide to innovate not only in game play but also in business models and push things forwards in terms of business models as far as they can while they are ahead.

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  • http://www.laptopbatteriesinc.ca/ canada batteries

    yes, I also think nintendo should do the marketing for using it for VOIP and IM, it should be compatible with SIP, Skype, Google Voice, video-conferencing and more. So it will success

  • http://myr4card.com/ r4

    HDMI output would be insane..

  • james braselton

    hi there i have had 10 hard drive failuers and hard drives working are way tooo slow soo here are a few options 1.8 inch 2.5 inch or 3.5 solid state flash drives up too 2 terabyte ssd or a 300 or 600 gb volocity raptors at 10,000 rpms or hybride ssd/hdd also a cool option

  • james braselton

    hi there neltendo your right i am a futuristic lime tron i want a telyporter and a time machine wich has not been invented yet were is the warp drive i also want a warp drive or star ship and halo decks too laser hard drives over 100 tb/s at 100 terabytes per second at 37.5 terabytes of storage capacity i know nintendo has 80% of not making it it is nice too dream or think about the future future is never writen in too stone soo i was very surpized about a true 3d 3ds verses like lukly’s line up wich is a 3d game for dsi useing dsi camera too track motion from the head only cost $5.00 or 500 dsi points and use 70 blocks of memory too if you have a dsi and want too sample 3d no glasses before nintendo 3ds i would recomand lookly’s line up game very fun

  • james braselton

    hi there neltendo your right i am a futuristic lime tron i want a telyporter and a time machine wich has not been invented yet were is the warp drive i also want a warp drive or star ship and halo decks too laser hard drives over 100 tb/s at 100 terabytes per second at 37.5 terabytes of storage capacity i know nintendo has 80% of not making it it is nice too dream or think about the future future is never writen in too stone soo i was very surpized about a true 3d 3ds verses like lukly’s line up wich is a 3d game for dsi useing dsi camera too track motion from the head only cost $5.00 or 500 dsi points and use 70 blocks of memory too if you have a dsi and want too sample 3d no glasses before nintendo 3ds i would recomand lookly’s line up game very fun

  • http://www.r4carteds.com/ Carte ds

    I agree, I never use that.

  • Pingback: Which ARM Processor is in the Nintendo 3DS? – ARMdevices.net

  • Anonymous

    I read your article. I am also hope that Nintendo should provide all your wishes in there nest Nintendo Ds device. I am also hope that they should give the 3G support for DS and also want GPS function in DS device. I really like if they will start to delever game in just $1. So no one use piracy and directly buy games.

    r4i

  • Edgarska

    -It should give you a blowjob on your birthday.

    -It should have a microwave compartment, with a monthly fee to stream hot-pockets.

    -It should be able to locate unicorns.