Nintendo tries again with 3-D console

Nintendo Co. hopes the third time's a charm for its 3-D game console amid expectations the company's global sales of its DS machines will decline this fiscal year for the first time.

The big selling point of the company's new machine, tentatively called Nintendo 3DS, is that users will not need to wear special glasses to experience the 3-D effects.

The Kyoto-based company said the console will be put on sale as early as this summer, and details, including price, will be disclosed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 Expo) trade show in Los Angeles in June.

Nintendo is also expected to release information on new game software for the Nintendo 3DS at the E3 Expo.

Like the previous DS consoles, the Nintendo 3DS will feature dual screens and a touch panel. It will be able to play software for the current DS machine.

The screens will likely consist of Sharp Corp.'s 3-D liquid crystal panels that offer 3-D imagery to the naked eye.

This will be the first complete makeover for the DS console since its debut in December 2004.

By the end of 2009, the company had sold at least 125 million units around the world.

But sales have slowed in Japan and peaked abroad. Nintendo expects its first year-on-year drop in global sales of DS consoles in fiscal 2009.

The Nintendo 3DS is not the company's first 3-D game console.

It started selling the Famicom 3D System in 1987 and Virtual Boy, which was shaped like binoculars, in 1995. Both products failed.

In January, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata looked back on the failure of Virtual Boy and said he did not think game console users wanted to wear the 3-D imagery glasses.

Iwata has repeatedly said the company's job is to "provide surprises." But it is unclear if the absence of the glasses alone will be enough of a "surprise" to sell the machine to gamers.

Amid growing attention to 3-D movies and television sets, both Sharp and Hitachi Ltd. have developed 3-D LCD displays that do not require viewers to wear special glasses. Cellphones with 3-D displays requiring no glasses have already been introduced in Japan.

Critics say the key to success for the Nintendo 3DS is development of new 3-D game software.