Nintendo recently released a press release in Japan, stating a new “DS” will be shown at E3 this year and with plans to be released within the next year.

The new “DS”, dubbed as the “Nintendo 3DS” will be the successor to the “Nintendo DS” series of handhelds and will be fully backwards compatible with all past “DS” and “DSi” games. It’s important to note that the “3DS” is a new hardware series, much like how the “Gameboy Advance” was to the “original Gameboy.”

The “3DS” allows the user to enjoy 3D effects in video games without the need of any special 3D glasses or equipment. It is yet unknown how the 3D effects will work exactly and if they will open up anything new in the gameplay department of future games.

A lot of rumours and reports are floating around about the “3DS”. One such report is from a Japanese newspaper; “The Asahi Shimbun” which had an interview with Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata, where it states that Iwata said “the Nintendo DS successor will have “highly detailed graphics, and it will be necessary to have a sensor with the ability to read the movements of people playing”. However according to Nintendo, the newspaper simply “misinterpreted” Iwata’s remarks. Although other rumours and reports seem to link to some sort of sensor that can read player movements.

Another rumour is that the announcement of the “3DS” is a response to the attention being given to Sony’s plans for 3D games and TV’s, due to released later this year.

Facts That We Know:

1. The Nintendo 3DS will be released sometime during Nintendo’s next financial year which starts from April 2010 up till March 2011.
2. The Nintendo 3DS will be capable of producing 3D graphics, without the need for 3D glasses.
3. The 3DS will be backwards compatible with the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi games, although we don’t know if it will have an extra slot for DS game’s such Guitar Hero.
4. It will be revealed during the E3 trade show, which will take place in June.

Rumours:

1. The 3DS is rumoured to have 2 cameras (most likely for the use of DSi Software)
2. It’ll use those cameras to track the movement of the player. That movement will then be used to display the 3D effects and affect gameplay.
3. The Nintendo 3DS is the codename for the new handheld, it could be renamed something different closer to date.
4. The Nintendo 3DS also has an inbuilt joystick and force feedback, according to one report.
5. The 3DS will have improved wireless communication speed and battery life, but that its dual screens will be smaller than that of the Nintendo DSi XL
6. It may have an accelerometer for tilt-controlled games.
7. Unofficial reports from Japan suggest the 3DS will have a parallax barrier 3D LCD from Sharp

Mockup images credit: shinji-man.