E3 2010: Wii 3D mooted by Iwata

As the only company to have released two – yes, two – 3D games consoles, the admission of Nintendo president Saturo Iwata that the next iteration of Wii will ‘probably’ include 3D support should not really come as a surprise.

However, with the technology very much in its infancy, Iwata will wait until take-up of 3D TVs hits a certain point before pressing the big red 3D button.

If you display a 3D image, the image quality becomes extremely bad, so we’d probably do it with the next system,” Andriasang reports the exec as stating.

We’re thinking that the timing should be once the 3D television adoption rates crosses the 30 per cent mark. We’re looking at the adoption trends.”

Iwata went on to claim that Nintendo had been putting together a 3D system long before the current 3D tech boom had started to take grip.

Nintendo had an eye the charms of immersive 3D for games and released a 3D game machine 15 years ago, but the technology was not ready,” he stressed. After that, we looked for a chance, and decided two years back that we finally had the technology and parts to make a satisfying product.

In 3D, it’s easier to get a sense for position. In a game where the stages extend into the screen, it’s surprisingly easier to control [compared to non 3D]. This is functionality for making games more pleasant to play, not just for show.”