TOKYO – The Japanese company, Nintendo Co., has finally released the successor of the Nintendo 3DS. The 3DS is a three-dimensional hand-held gaming device with screens nearly double the previous model. Amid intense competition with multifunctional phones and tablets, Nintendo is confident that their new gaming device will become very popular among gamers.
Last Friday, the creator of Super Mario games and the Wii home console, announced that the LL 3DS device or internationally known as the 3DS XL, will be release in Japan and Europe on July 28 and August 19 for the US market.
The device will be priced at ¥18,900 yen ($236 dollars) and will go for $199.99 in the US. The company did not announce the price in Europe.
The 3DS has a touch screen and will show three-dimensional images even without special glasses. Additionally, it has two screens with one measuring 8.97 centimeters (3.53 inches) and the other 7.67 cm (3.02 inches).
The screens on the LL or XL versions are 12.40 centimeters (4.88 inches) and 10.62 centimeters (4.18 inches. Since the screens are measured diagonally, the screen on the LL are 1.9 times larger.
“They wanted a bigger screen so we are ready to respond with a model with a different size,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in a video posted on the website of the company. “You can enjoy powerful images in 3D,” he added.
The new device weighs a little more than the previous version. But the battery was increased to six hours for games in 3D from the five hours before and up to 10 hours for regular games.
Analyst Yusuke Tsunoda of Tokai Tokyo Securities Co. said that larger screens are almost universally an additional attraction for the purchase of a video gaming device. Furthermore, affordability plays a big role in how the market will respond to the new product.
