Nintendo 3DS hardware producer Hideki Konno has revealed that the Nintendo 3DS originally lacked the 3D visuals and the gyroscopic sensor.
“I became involved with development starting in 2008, but at that time, it didn’t have 3D visuals,” admitted Konno. Given that the original 3DS designs didn’t look very different from the DS Lite, what convinced Nintendo to switch to 3D?
“With this system, you could say the timing was just right for us,” explained Konno. “It was the right time to start thinking about using the latest in high-tech and try out glasses-free 3D. The technology we got to demo was really impressive, and starting in early 2009, we began to think that it was time to bring it to games.”
Yet Nintendo didn’t stop with 3D visuals. According to Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto wanted more from the system and pressed for a gyro sensor.
“Those sensors were actually put in pretty late. We officially went with them just before E3 last year. The boat had really left the port by that point – the hardware team had the final specs and just had to work it all out.
“Then, in the midst of that, Miyamoto said ‘This isn’t enough; we can really change things if there’s a gyro sensor in there.’ We had a prototype for the sensor already, so we got everyone together to try it out, and the conclusion we came up with was ‘Well, if we can do things this fun with it, I guess we’ve got no choice.’”
