Nintendo has announced 3DS XL, the handheld's first hardware revision with a screen 90 per cent bigger than the launch model, due in Europe and Japan next month.
The system, previously rumoured by Nikkei, was unveiled in the early hours of this morning during a Nintendo Direct web broadcast hosted by company president Satoru Iwata, who pointed out that 3DS XL had the biggest screen of any Nintendo handheld to date.
The top screen measures 4.88", with the bottom 4.18", though it displays the same resolution as the launch model. The system itself is bigger too, of course, weighing 336g, more than 40 per cent heavier than 3DS.
It boasts improved battery life of 3.5 to six hours, which is just as well: the system won't ship with an AC adapter, with buyers able to use existing 3DS and DSi chargers, or buy one off the shelf.
The DSi XL was aimed at gamers of a certain age who struggled to make out a game's finer details on regular-sized screens, and with Dr Kawashima making his 3DS debut in the coming months in Five Minute Oni Training, now seems a sensible time to launch an outsized 3DS.
Nikkei's claim that 3DS XL would be announced during Nintendo's E3 press conference was denied, with the company saying the report was "full of mistakes and nothing more than conjecture," according to Andriasang. Despite widespread expectations that Nintendo's first 3DS redesign would add a second Circle Pad, 3DS XL has just the one.
3DS XL will be released in Japan and Europe on July 28, and in North America on August 18.
Comments
10Launch it with Majora's Mask and i'll buy two of the things.
meh, no second anologue controller for the right thumb.
I ain`t buying a sleek lovely designed bit of kit to add an obtrusive third party device which make games alot more playable.
No AC, no second thumbstick, and no price? Fail.
My kid's been dying for this to come out, since I told him not to waste his money on the first iteration and told him to wait for the inevitable XL model.
Frankly I would have not expected any second analogue, as adding it officially separates the first iteration of the machine from the second; games will no longer be 100% compatible if the devs seek to take advantage of said stick in their design.
Plus it'd also be quite a large admission that they got the first design wrong.
Shame though - a 1st party update like that would imbue more excitement in the machine than leaving it for 3rd parties to produce games that still require compatibility with single sticks. But then maybe Nintendo didn't want this machine to simply be a haven for cut-down ports of first person shooters, which is, let's be honest, something that would happen.
I showed it to my son expecting him to be exited because he loves his DS XL but he said Nintendo is for babies and he wants a PSvita for Christmas. Only 6 years old and he needs a more mature experience lol.
Nintendo's become too childish even for children.
I am a bit confused about how the screen size can be 90% bigger than the 3DS. 3DS XL is 4.88 for too screen, 3DS had 3.53. I make that 38% bigger, or am I doing something wrong?
90% bigger should put it around 6.71 or so, if I'm not a buffoon.
Oh dear, did we skip one too many Maths classes?
Yes you're doing something wrong. They're talking about area, you're talking about 1 dimension.
That should have read top screen, not too screen...