| Nintendo's Hideki Konno discusses the 3DS and the element of surprise Jun 8th 2012, 20:27  As E3 was coming to a close, we sat down with one of the men responsible for Nintendo's 3DS, Hideki Konno. Konno's official title is manager / producer, but because he's involved at such a high level with both software and hardware development on the 3DS, our conversation covered quite the range of topics. When asked about the handheld's performance in the last year, he drew parallels to the success of the DS that preceded it and he hopes that the 3DS will experience a similar growth curve. Due to the mention of the DS, we inquired about the possibility of a larger 3DS. While Mr. Konno wasn't able to confirm plans for a super-sized version of the current-gen handheld, he did express his affinity for the DSi XL's increased real estate -- he finds the larger screen is much easier to gaze upon. You can draw your own conclusions as to exactly what that means. When chatting about mobile gaming, we asked about the impact of smartphones on the outfit's handheld. Konno offered that Nintendo prides itself on surprising gamers with new "compelling experiences" that handsets can't provide. We asked if any of these new experiences would involve the integration of both 3DS and the Wii U, and Konno replied that he's confident about those explorations will take place in future. In fact, a version of the Smash Brothers series is currently being developed for both 3DS and Wii U simultaneously. He indicated that it would be hard to believe that the two versions being developed in parallel wouldn't provide some unique interactions between them and their respective platforms. Additionally, while it sounds like the Miiverse will only be available on Big N's next-gen console at launch, Mr. Konno communicated that -- depending out how well it's received -- we're likely see the social element brought to the mobile gaming arena, too. Michael Gorman contributed to this report. Nintendo's Hideki Konno discusses the 3DS and the element of surprise originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | E3 2012 wrap-up Jun 8th 2012, 20:00  Greetings from -- actually, scratch that, we're all back home now, but we had a blast spending the week in sunny, smoggy downtown Los Angeles -- even if this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo wasn't exactly the most exciting in recent memory. After all, neither Sony nor Microsoft gave us much in the way of new hardware, and Nintendo, the one member of the big three with a new console for 2012, didn't show off much that we hadn't already seen. We did, however, get our hands on a fair share of hardware and we're generally impressed by some software innovation, like Microsoft's SmartGlass. If you happened to miss something during the gaming news deluge (not to mention the fact that Computex happened to be going on at the same time), feel free to catch up on our coverage after the break. Continue reading E3 2012 wrap-up E3 2012 wrap-up originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | US Cellular announces Galaxy S III pricing, starts at $200 Jun 8th 2012, 19:33  US Cellular made it known that it would be accepting pre-orders of the Samsung Galaxy S III this upcoming Tuesday (with the device shipping sometime in July), but it left the pricing a mystery to keep us all in suspense for at least a few days. As it turns out, USCC will be offering the 16GB GS3 for $200, while the 32GB flavor will cost you an extra $50. Here's the kicker, though: these prices can be yours -- after a $100 mail-in rebate. But hey, it's hard for us to complain too much, considering it's not too often a regional carrier gets a flagship device around the same time as any of the major national players. US Cellular announces Galaxy S III pricing, starts at $200 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | |
