Nintendo 3DS primed for March release

Nintendo 3DS will retail in the US for $250, Nintendo announced today.

Nintendo 3DS – the long-rumored, much-anticipated, 3D-capable video game device – is set to hit store shelves on March 27, Nintendo announced today at a press event in New York. The 3DS will retail for $250, relatively pricey for a handheld platform, but cheaper than the $300 price tag originally floated by scads of tech bloggers.

So what do you get for 250 bucks? Well, for one, you get two displays, the bottom of which works with a telescoping stylus. The top screen, meanwhile, is where all the 3D magic happens – and you won't even need glasses to see the fireworks. According to Nintendo, the 3DS will come equipped with something called "a 3D Depth Slider," that "lets players select the level of 3D they enjoy the most."

"Nintendo 3DS is a category of one – the experience simply doesn't exist anywhere else," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said in a press statement. "You have to see Nintendo 3DS to believe it. And it's like nothing you've ever seen before." Fils-Aime is right in at least one way: The Nintendo 3DS is the first handheld device capable of 3D gaming.

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Of course, plenty of folks – including Nintendo's competitors – have questioned whether the Nintendo 3DS will earn a large audience. "Having been in the portable space for quite awhile, I think it's an interesting move but one I'd like to see where they go from a demographic standpoint," Sony exec John Koller, said last year. Koller added that "8- and 9-year-olds playing 3D is a little bit of a stretch given where some of our research is right now."