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Wii 2 Not Likely to Include 3D, says Nintendo

Posted March 29, 2011 by James Brightman

Nintendo 3DS just launched over the weekend, and many consumers are now getting acquainted with the device's glasses-free 3D visuals. And while the focus currently is on 3DS, the industry is anxiously awaiting Nintendo's next move in the console space, as the Wii continues to fade. Unlike Sony's push into stereoscopic 3D, however, a Wii 2 isn't likely to offer 3D gaming.

"Glasses-free is a big deal. We've not said publicly what the next thing for us will be in the home console space, but based on what we've learned on 3-D, likely, that won't be it," Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime told CNN.

Nintendo has always been against 3D that requires glasses. "I think at Nintendo, we realize that any sort of goggle-type 3-D technology was not going to work," Nintendo designer Hideki Konno said. "In order to make 3-D technology viable with video games, we thought we needed to have glasses-free 3-D."

The problem in the console space is that the glasses-free screen technology used in 3DS might not be affordable enough on a large scale for a Wii 2 to make 3D a major feature. Knowing Nintendo, though, the company will probably come up with some innovation that none of us saw coming. 

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.

1 Comments

indysurfn
March 30, 2011

That last sentence: no one saw coming? Lots of people saw Wii coming, motion controllers date back to the Microsoft side Winder in 1998 with full motion detection. So it was more of a re-coming. Most people may have not seen the side winder coming back then, but I would not say no one. I can see something coming from one of the big three (or five if rumors are true) after I buy MORE stock in the company that owns the most advanced tech (that is publicly held) I will post it.




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