UPDATE Nintendo To Announce 3D DS Successor at E3

UPDATED New DS to be backwards compatible and in 3D WITHOUT the need of glasses.

As if E3 couldn’t be anymore crazy with Natal and the Playstation Move on the verge of being released, Nintendo stirs the pot with something i can only call insane. It’s temporarily called Nintendo 3DS and will be the successor to the DS. It will be backwards compatible with DS software, but more crazily, it will be 3D WITHOUT GLASSES!  What the hell, indeed!

This is coming from a press release found on Nintendo’s Japanese website (and a bunch of Journalist i follow on twitter). Could this be a gag? I wouldn’t know, but judge for yourself, here are the links to the OFFICIAL Japanese press release as well as an English translated version:

Japanese Press Release

English Press Release

As i’m sure you read, it might be out as early as March 2011 in Japan. We’ll find out as E3 gets closer.

UPDATE: Dailytech.com is speculating that the system will utilize the Hitachi microlens 3D display for the 3Ds.

Whether this is based in fact or pure speculation remains to be seen. The Hitachi tech uses a microlens array of tiny convex lenses in columns under the LCD screen. The little lenses are able to create 3D effects as the gamer looks at the screen. This is not the only tech out there that will allow for 3D effects without glasses.

The Hitachi system is said to require displays with higher resolutions to operate. SlashGearreports that Hitachi has a demo system of that uses 5-inch 1280 x 768 panels. The DSi XL for comparison uses 4.2-inch displays. It would be easy enough to imagine the 3DS getting higher resolution LCDs in a slightly larger size to accommodate the 3D tech.