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Nintendo Looking At 3D For the Next Wii

Posted June 17, 2010 by M.H. Williams

3D was on everyone's lips this year. Sony had their monster PlayStation 3 3D push to coincide with their new 3D Bravia televisions, and Nintendo unveiled their new 3DS portable. Nintendo is quite satisfied with their new handheld, but they're still watching the market to see how 3DTV pans out.

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata spoke to the Nihon Keizei Shimbun about 3D and the future of Nintendo's home consoles.

"If you display a 3D image, the image quality becomes extremely bad, so we'd probably do it with the next system,” said Iwata. “We're thinking that the timing should be once the 3D television adoption rates crosses the 30 percent mark. We're looking at the adoption trends."

Iwata says that Nintendo was not cognizant of the upcoming 3D boom when they designed the 3DS.  "Nintendo had an eye on the charms of immersive 3D for games and released a 3D game machine 15 years ago, but the technology was not ready,” Iwata said, referring to the failed Virtual Boy. “After that, we looked for a chance, and decided two years back that we finally had the technology and parts to make a satisfying product."

Nintendo felt the 3D switch was predicated on the ability to enhance gameplay. "In 3D, it's easier to get a sense for position. In a game where the stages extend into the screen, it's surprisingly easier to control [compared to non 3D]. This is functionality for making games more pleasant to play, not just for show."

Iwata acknowledges that he believes wholeheartedly in 3D as the future, but it will take time to get there. "It allows us to realize images that are close to what you see in your daily life. In the future, 3D will become the mainstream of gaming,” he ended.

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.

2 Comments

innerloop
June 18, 2010

He does realize that all those 3DTVs will also be HD, right?

indysurfn
June 19, 2010

This makes sense because why would you have a handheld that is 3d and the console is not?

This also makes sense because why would you let the competition exclusively have 3d on their console when you had it on the handheld first.

They did inovate with the wii, so obviously HD and 3d will be on the wii-two, while keeping the motion and improving it. I think there may also be a suprise besides 3d for wii-two.