Nintendo Announces Next DS System: "3DS"

This was really unexpected. I was about to go to sleep when sudden announcement of Nintendo's next DS system hit the web. The "3DS" will give the user 3D visual effects without  the need for 3D glasses, while still being compatible with DS and DSi games.

Furthermore, this new device will be shown at this years E3, and we can expect a release date between April 2010 to March 2011.
The question isn't whether its do-able, the tech is readily available, but I think the better question is: Do we want this? I really don't know why Nintendo would want to make the leap into the 3D hand-held market, but I guess someone had to do it. Right?

On top of all this news, you shouldn't forget that today many top journalists/video game bloggers got their review copies of the DSi XL. The DSi XL isn't even out for the general public, but Nintendo is already deep into development of a newer DS.                                                      

Picture from Kotaku

I'm a bit shocked, but like I said in an earlier post, big companies need to think ahead of the current market in order to stay competitive.
If you want to read more, I have linked bellow the Japanese, and the English documents revealing the 3DS.
Japanese Info
English Info

Natal Successor Already In The Works

Even though Project Natal is still 8 months away, Microsoft is already working on the next motion sensor. Research Asia department director Hsiao-Wuen Hon spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald (via Spong) that they are already thinking of a new version.
“When we invent something first like Natal, while we have a researcher working with the product group for the first version we already have a researcher thinking about the second version down the road,” said Hon. “We certainly hope we will continue to be holding that technology.”

Now don't get worried. This doesn't mean that Microsoft is planning to "annualized" releases of Project Natal, or that they think the first one sucks so they're making a new one. This is just big companies think way into the future in order to stay competitive with everyone else. Chances are that we might never see Natal 2.0 hit retail stores, although I find that to be pretty unlikely.

This sure does say something about people's belief in motion control however, many developers think that motion control is just some type of fad rolling through the games industry at the moment. When companies like Microsoft keep investing into newer/better motion control, it might be something that's here to stay, even though some don't want it.

 
I'll keep you guys posted on more Natal 2.0 info, but don't expect more anytime soon. We still have to go through Microsoft's Natal heavy E3 keynote, sometime between June 15-17.

More Project Natal Info Soon

Microsoft is planning to release more information about Project Natal, perhaps including its games and even a final name, at E3 this summer, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE, Aaron Greenberg has confirmed.
“I would say to expect us to share news around E3 time,” he said when asked when the company might reveal the final name of the upcoming motion controller. “But right now, we’re obviously in a codename status.”
“We just unveiled this thing about seven months ago at E3, so it’s an entirely new category of games and entertainment. We are still in codename status, and we haven’t shown any of the actual games. There’s a lot more to share.”

I was getting pretty used to calling it Project Natal, so I'm very curious to see what they're actually going to name this thing. Maybe it will end up like MAG and just keep its codename...