Nintendo recently released its latest installment in the portable gaming market with the 3DS, which provides gamers the third-dimension without the need for special glasses.
Nintendo managed to establish itself as a company synonymous with video games in the 1980s with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Although times have changed and Microsoft and Sony now hold a significant portion of the gaming market, Nintendo continues to dominate the hand held device market. The GameBoy made video games portable and established the company as a dominant video game force on both home and portable consoles.
Nintendo did have a colossal failure in the mid-1990s with the Virtual Boy, which was supposed to give gamers a sense of virtual reality on a portable console. The technology was too new and every game was designed in an unappealing red and black hue.
As the years have gone by, the GameBoy has continued to satisfy gamers’ needs with constant updates, but more recently, the DS has become a staple in the portable gaming sector. The DS has sold well more than 100 million units worldwide since being released in 2004.
“While 3D movies have become popular for Hollywood movie studios, the video game industry has not made widespread use of the technology, citing the limited sales and high costs of 3D television sets and the special glasses needed to view them,” wrote MarketWatch’s Dan Gallagher. “The technology is new enough that Nintendo even issued a warning to gamers last year to limit playing time on the device to 30 minutes per session, and to avoid letting children under the age of 6 play games using 3D, on the risk that it might impair eye development.”
As anticipation grows for the latest and greatest gaming console, the only opinion that truly matters is that of the gamers themselves. Judging from the early sales, it appears the 3DS may become even more popular than the DS and GameBoy.
