Nintendo 3DS Message Board older than one year ago

As expected, Nintendo has confirmed plans to stream its E3 press briefing. The briefing is slated to take place on June 7 at 9am PT (12pm ET) and promises to offer the first glimpse of Nintendo's Wii successor (and probably Zelda or something).

In order to secure your "virtual front-row seat", be sure to park your web browser at E3.Nintendo.com prior to the event. Additional video content, including trailers and interviews, will also be featured on the site after the briefing is over. "A variety of exclusive content" will also be accessible on the Wii via the Nintendo Channel.

We hope your body is ready.

Fans eager for latest news on the next Nintendo console and the games coming out for it can tune into Nintendo's E3 website starting June 7, where the company will be streaming its 2011 media event live at 9AM Pacific. More »

#quotable Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester, not being a bit shy on Twitter. More »

#dimensions The 3DS's line-up is slimmer in Sweden. Fighting game Dead or Alive: Dimensions isn't currently on the website for Bergasala, a Nintendo game distributor. There might be a good reason for that. More »

#watchthis The holy shit moment of the Nintendo 3DS is its Augmented Reality capability. By using cards (or tattoos), the 3DS can project augmented reality. Sony is working on its own AR tech. It's truly impressive. More »

#thebluepill Nintendo takes the fight against piracy seriously. How serious? Serious enough to really mess up this guy's day. More »

#yougot5rupees Nintendo 3DS game boxes have been designed to be friendlier on the environment by using less plastic. All those little holes could look like crap, but Nintendo already knows a good way to make the most of them. More »

#prunes The 3DS is an expensive, beautiful piece of gaming hardware. Because it's so expensive, owners might be prone to notice the smallest things. More »

We trust that you're already carrying your 3DS around with you wherever you go -- your Nintendogs need the exercise, you know -- but you want to make doubly sure you bring it with you should you cross the threshold of a Best Buy this summer. The store has partnered with Nintendo to deliver 3DS content via the SpotPass feature starting June 7, including "exclusive offers as well as additional entertainment content such as gaming extras and movie trailers."

No specific "gaming extras" or trailers were mentioned in the partnership's press release, but any reason to dust off the 3DS' SpotPass is a welcome opportunity, indeed. We haven't used a handheld gaming device's feature this infrequently since the original DS' infamous panini press mode.

Starting June 7, Nintendo and Best Buy are teaming up to bring 3DS WiFi spots to over 1,000 stores across the country. Besides trailers and exclusive content, the spots will take advantage of the 3DS's SpotPass feature. [via Nintendo] More »

#strangerdanger On May 12, a 10 year-old grade-schooler in Kochi City and her friend waere playing with her Nintendo game portable along the city's waterway. A 23 year-old man named Akira Nakamura appeared and said, "Let me see your game machine." More »

#cool When the Nintendo 3DS is looking for an AR Card to start a game, it isn't searching for or recognizing its specific image-it's recognizing a color, and then spawning whatever comes next off of that. To prove this, AR enthusiast Super Jezmerelda created cards with the question-box design cut out, then framed certain colors within that window. More »

Yesterday, Microsoft was all too willing to toot its own horn and reveal that 297,000 Xbox 360s were sold in the month of April, but GameSpot says it managed to secure numbers for its competitor, Nintendo. The 3DS was apparently just shy of 200,000 units, unloading 194,000 3DS handhelds on consumers.

The Wii lagged behind with 172,000 units sold, while the remaining members of the DS family sold a combined 257,000 units. May should fare better for Nintendo on the Wii side of things, with an impending price cut on the horizon, one that will see consoles bundled with a copy of Mario Kart Wii and a wheel accessory.

As for the PS3, MarketWatch reports 204,000 units were sold -- not bad considering all of the, well, you know. Still, that's not a figure confirmed by Sony, who we've contacted for comment. We'll update you when we hear back.

#timewaitsfornoman The 3DS launched without its online store being ready for business. Which was weird. Weirder still is that the store's launch has now been pushed even further back (if only by a week or so). More »

The 3DS firmware update adding the eShop, DSiWare transfer, web browser, and other features, was originally scheduled to be released in "late May." A note on Nintendo of Japan's website reveals that it's going to be released so late in May that it'll actually be June by the time it arrives.

June 7 is now the official date for the firmware update, in Japan at least. That happens to coincide with Nintendo's E3 presentation, so we're now expecting that to be the worldwide release date, so Nintendo can make a dramatic reveal on stage. We're checking with Nintendo, in any case.

[Thanks, Manuel!]

You may not be able to purchase anything on Nintendo's 3DS eShop until the update goes live at some point later this month, but Best Buy is more than happy to start selling you virtual monies for when it does. As spotted by Reddit user "phillipsteak" at his local Best Buy in Merced, California, $20 eShop cards are already out there, readying themselves for virtual deployment.

We confirmed the cards with the California Best Buy, where reps said only $20 denominations were currently in stock and listed in the store's inventory. Jumping coasts, a Connecticut-area Best Buy similarly confirmed having $20 eShop cards in stock, as well as confirming no other types were listed, while locations in West Virginia and Oklahoma had no knowledge of the cards. If you happen to be at your local brick-and-mortar tonight and you see one, feel free to snap a shot and send it over with your name and location!

Sega today formally unveiled Crush3D (geddit?), the 3DS remake of 2007's perspective-shifting PSP puzzle-platformer, Crush. With the announcement, the publisher released a handful of screenshots and a debut trailer, and pinned the game to a September 6 launch in North America (September 9 in Europe and Australia).

Not only does it add 3D graphics, but this reimagining of Crush has also undergone a fairly significant aesthetic change. Gone are the dark and dreary environments of the original game, replaced by a much less stressful jewel-toned palette. Check out Crush3D's brightened-up locales in the new screenshots below and video after the jump.

Namco Bandai's aerial combat series is making its debut on the 3DS sometime soon, with an Ace Combat game announced overnight for Nintendo's new handheld. [Pocketgamer] More »

You can keep passing and picking up someone that you’ve crossed over 99 times, but the counter is going to stay at 99 from here until…the end of eternity. Thanks to Kolma for the heads up!

#johnnydepp Johnny Depp does a great job playing an off-kilter buccaneer in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but can a pile of LEGO bricks—a pile of virtual ones, no less—nail the performance in a new video game? I checked the brand new LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean video game and, well, they nailed it. More »

#fanart The new Nintendo 3DS has a rather blunt "ERROR" screen when the handheld locks up. It does the job, sure, but it's bland as hell. This Mario-and-Twitter-themed "Fail Squid" would be much better. [Super Punch] More »

#rumor Everything we've seen so far of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D has made it look little more than a tech demo for Nintendo's new console. But according to MCV, it may be less of a demo and more a nearly finished game. More »

Nintendo will deliver its E3 presentation on June 7 at 9AM Pacific (12PM Eastern), at LA's Nokia Theatre -- so if you're dying to know which of the many preposterous things we've heard about the Wii successor is the preposterous truth, you'll have to wait until then.

We can also expect to hear more about upcoming games for the Wii, DS, and especially the new 3DS -- like the 3DS Super Mario game, for example, and probably some games we haven't heard of yet. You'll be able to read about it all in real time right here on Joystiq!

There'll probably be streaming video, too, but you should just stick with reading Joystiq. Just because.

Nintendo of America has brought in Scott Moffitt as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. For those of you not intimately familiar with Nintendo's corporate structure (those of you who, say, didn't have to do research for a post you're writing right now) that's the "Cammie Dunaway" role -- also the job held by Reggie Fils-Aime before he became president of NOA. That means we'll likely see Moffitt on stage at E3 this year.

Moffitt, like the others, comes from outside of the game industry, having worked at Pepsico and then Henkel Consumer Goods (home of brands like Dial and Right Guard). We have no idea what that means for his ability to push Kirby games.

Infected by nanomachines, an amnesiac teenager gains the ability to sprout vehicles out of his body. With a premise like that, it's a surprise Generator Rex didn't start as a video game.

Finally, after a year-long stint on Cartoon Network, the property is meeting its destiny courtesy of Activision, which is releasing Generator Rex: Agent of Providence on DS, 3DS, Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 this October. Players will travel "the depths of the jungle, the scorching deserts and the heart of metropolitan cities," fighting evil nanomachine-mutated people ("E.V.O.s"), collecting weapon blueprints and trying to stop Van Kleiss!

And now we're going to start watching this cartoon, because it actually sounds kind of awesome.

#science A group of researchers from MIT have developed a new version of the parallax barrier technology used by Nintendo to give the 3DS its signature 3D visuals. The new version of the screen, called HR3D ("High Rank 3D"), can produce the same glasses-free 3D images as the 3DS, but does so while generating a brighter image and using less battery power. HR3D uses two layered screens to produce 3D, just like the 3DS. More »

#handholding You may be playing two of EA's biggest upcoming games on the go, as the publisher has listed "handheld/mobile" releases for both Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3, two games currently announced for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. More »

#watchthis Here's a new trailer for the June-scheduled 3DS re-make of The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. The graphics have been improved, though my memory already made them look as good as they appear in this new trailer. More »

Most people who don't happen to have their Nintendo 3DS AR cards handy just, you know, load them up on a smartphone. But a fellow who goes by the handle Cranberryzero decided to go for a more permanent solution -- he got a tattoo of the Mii AR card on his arm.

As you can see above and after the break, the tattoo actually works. Whenever the 3DS camera is looking at his arm, the Mii of his choosing appears to be standing just below his wrist. Cranberryzero says the tattoo works best in dim light; in bright light, the device seems to have trouble sussing out the card's border from his skin color.

It's pretty cool -- and clever -- but he'd better start preparing an explanation to give his future grandkids now.

#gamerink IHeartChaos' Cranberryzero was so impressed with the Nintendo 3DS augmented reality cards that he decided to have one permanently stabbed into his skin. What could be better than this augmented reality tattoo? I have a few suggestions. More »