Nintendo Planning 3DS Demo Event

General public to get their hands on the new system early next year.

2010-10-29 11:14 / Anoop Gantayat / 5 Comments

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata announces the demo event in a message filmed in the room where the Iwata Asks columns are shot.

Members of the press and industry insiders have had their chance to try out the 3DS. Now it's time for the general public.

Nintendo announced today that it will be holding a public 3DS demo event early next year. The event will be held on January 8, 9 and 10 (a three day weekend) at the Makuhari Messe just outside Tokyo (this is the same location as the Tokyo Game Show and last month's Nintendo Conference press event). Further details, and presumably a name for the event, will be announced later.

Notice was delivered from Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata in a special video message recorded in the room where the "Iwata Asks" columns are shot.

In the video message, Iwata reminded viewers that at the recent Nintendo Conference event he'd said the 3DS would likely face new hurdles. Once of these hurdles is in trying to convey the message of 3D visuals to players. The demo event is in response to this.

The January event will be the first time the general public will get to sample the 3DS anywhere in the world, Iwata noted.

He also said that although Nintendo currently has no plans for other large scale events (past pre-release Wii and DS demo events were held in multiple locations around Japan), it does have some plans in place to give players in other parts of Japan a chance to sample the system ahead of release.