Nintendo 3DS is proper DS successor

Reggie Fils-Aime has said that Nintendo's upcoming 3DS is more than a mere revamp of its existing dual-screen console.

"We have ideas of what we want to bring to the consumer that we can't do with the current [DS]," Fils-Aime, who is president of Nintendo of America, told BusinessWeek (thanks Kotaku).

"The Nintendo 3DS for us is our next handheld platform."

However, Fils-Aime also distanced the 3DS - which will utilise 3D visuals without the need for glasses and which will also run existing DS titles - from the hardware-heavy 3D efforts of companies like Japanese rival Sony.

"Fundamentally, this business is about software, not hardware. Software is what drives engagement by the consumer," he told BusinessWeek. "For us technology is not the end, it's the means to an end, which is around a great consumer experience."

Nintendo announced the 3DS in late March and said it would have more to add on the subject at E3 this June.

Digital Foundry picked through the announcement and additional reporting and drew conclusions about the technological direction Nintendo may be taking.