E3 is long gone, and we´re stepping into the period where we know of all this great stuff coming out, but most of it is in the distant future. Maybe the biggest surprise of the show was the 3DS, and though us involved gamers knew about the existence of a 3D compatible DS beforehand, we were shocked when we heard how great it works. Even though most people (including me) haven´t seen it in action, I doubt everyone else were lying about its functionality. Now, I know the big selling point is the 3D, but I´ve crafted some ideas on how it can improve on the already existing DS.
Socializing: Sites like Facebook and Twitter have become enormously successful these last couple of years, and both Sony and Microsoft has tried to cash in on the phenomenon. The thing is: People don´t want to update their profiles or check friends´photos on their Xbox or Playstation when they have a perfectly fine computer in the same room, which is exactly why it would work perfectly on the 3DS. Being as it is a portable system, people are going to bring it places like the bus or on vacation where they can´t use their computers, but they might have a 3DS with them. You could upload 3D images to Twitter and other people with 3DS´s sould see them, the touch screen makes it easy to type unlike on Xbox, and Facebook is already very popular on iPhone, so why the hell not?
3D movies: Movie theatres are becomming less important now that everyone owns a 50 inch TV with surround sound in their living room (ok, not everyone), which is why movie companies are making movies in 3D to try and make people forget that there´s no real reason not to just wait for the movie to come out on blu ray. If Nintendo makes an online movie service via the 3DS, or strikes a deal with Netflix or Hulu or something, we could watch Avatar in full 3D on the toilet if we want. And not only 3D movies, but regular ones as well.
Casual it up!: Being the hardcore gamer that I am, the word "Casual" makes me die a little inside, but that´s exactly the kind of games the 3DS needs. Why? Well, the whole concept of handhelds is based around being able to play whereever you go. Say I´m on a bus, I don´t want to play deep immersive games, I wanna play the in-and-out games that I can play for five minutes before doing whatever I was doing. I´m not saying they should focus sorely on the casual market, but let´s face it, a lot of the people who´s gonna buy will be the casual gamers. Nintendo should open their own casual games online store, kinda like the iPhone app store. Sell the games for $1-10 a pop, and everyone´s happy.
Quality over price: The tag line says it all, I would rather have a pricy device that´s great, than something cheap and underdeveloped. Put in a better camera, implement better Wi-Fi functionality, maybe an ethernet port if they are serious about online, upgrade the graphics card (which already looks a lot better than the DSi), and make a solid joypad (I haven´t tried it, but if it´s gonna be used a lot, it should be better than the PSP one).
Final words: At the time of writing, I have unfortunately forgot some ideas I had when I first started to think about this (on the bus actually), but my key points got through and hopefully the 3DS will be as magnificent as we all dream about. One last thing, though.
The design: this is a really small point, but I don´t care much for the design of the 3DS. It looks clunky, and not likely to fit in my front pocket in any comfortable way, so sleeker design will be my final words on the topic. Sleeker design.