Nintendo 3DS to reach U.S. stores this March

Gaming giant Nintendo will release its new 3DS handheld game player in Japan on Feb. 26, with the device rolling out to U.S. and European consumers the following month. Priced at $300 for Japanese consumers and touting stereoscopic 3D viewing capabilities, the 3DS will arrive with 10 titles, among them Konami's Winning Eleven 3DSoccer, Capcom's Super Street Fighter IV, Tecmo Koei's Samurai Warriors: Chronicle, Square Enix's Tobidasu! Puzzle Bobble, Namco Bandai's Ridge Racer 3D, Ubisoft's Combat of Giants and Level-5's Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle. The device will boast battery life ranging between 3.5 hours and 5 hours depending on factors like screen brightness and wireless connectivity--the 3DS also features an extendable stylus, augmented-reality cards and a 2 gigabyte SD memory card.

The 3DS heralds Nintendo's attempt to resuscitate the portable gaming market--in recent years, the segment has taken a severe beating at the hands of smartphones and portable media devices like Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod touch, which offer access to downloaded titles priced at a fraction of the cost of conventional videogames. In late 2010, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the 3DS also will enable gamers to wirelessly locate other players, explaining social media features will "encourage people to make it a habit to carry around the devices wherever they go."

For more:
- read this VentureBeat article

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