Nintendo readies iTunes-like app store for 3DS

Update to bring web browsing too

By Hard Reg, 3rd March 2011

Nintendo is to bring an iTunes-style app store to the Nintendo 3DS.

Dubbed the eShop, the store will allow owners of the handheld console the opportunity to buy and download not only old Game Boy, Game Boy Colour, GameGear and TurboGrafx games but also "3D Classics" - titles recoded to take advantage of the 3DS' auto-stereoscopic display.

The store will be joined by the DSiWare service. This will be handy for DSi owners who want to upgrade to the 3DS, as it will allow them to copy DSIWare titles onto the new console.

The app store will be added to the handheld toward the end of May, and will be released globally, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced this week.

The update will also add a web browser to the handheld.

The Nintendo 3DS arrives in the UK on 25 March. We have ours now - watch out for Reg Hardware's full review. ®

Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery

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Highly Rated

Posted Thursday 3rd March 2011 11:32 GMT

Vitani

iPhone everything?

"Nintendo is to bring an iTunes-style app store to the Nintendo 3DS"

So it's nothing like the DSi or Wii shops then? One of which pre-dates the iPhone entirely? It there some unwritten law that every bloody tech article has to mention the iPhone or something?

I'm getting kinda sick of this now ...

Posted Friday 4th March 2011 10:29 GMT

MrTivo

Hope the 3DS is better than the VirtualBoy

I have a VB, and I can tell you that after a very short period of time, it gets very difficult to keep your concentration due to watering eyes and cramp in the neck/shoulders.

I suppose with the 3DS you can move around more than the VB, but I gave to say the VB games were pretty underwhelming in the 3D dept. Still Nintendo don't often drop the ball, but the VB was one of those times. I didn't pay much for mine as I got one during the fire sale clear out of the system and games. Certainly they are pushing the system very hard before release.

Now the Sega Nomad was a nice system to have at the time. MegaDrive / Genesis on the move. That bombed too.

Posted Thursday 3rd March 2011 21:51 GMT

squilookle

I am a big fan of Nintendo

I currently have a Wii and a DSi, and I still have some older consoles too.

The 3DS doesn't appeal though, I'm afraid. It does nothing that makes my DSi look obsolete to me.

3d is no good to me, I'm blind in one eye anyway.

The lineup of games announced so far isn't exactly exciting.

I am interested in playing some of the old gameboy games again, but I suspect I'd be much better off buying an old Gameboy Colour or Advance and hunting down the games I want to play, if I could be bothered.

Maybe when the DSi actually breaks... but it looks pretty healthy at the moment, so I expect we'll be on atleast the third revision of the 3DS by then, if not onto the next handheld.