In all of the hullabaloo surrounding E3 and the big reveal of the 3DS, we haven’t heard a lot of straight shooting answers. Well, Wired yesterday posted a really interesting interview with Hideki Konno, basically the guy who says what the 3DS gets to do. He’s like the John McCain of handheld development, as straight-shooting as they come.
In the article, Konno doesn’t mix words when asked the tough questions. For example:
Wired.com: Why is there an extendable stylus?
Konno: We couldn’t make it longer because the stylus slot is vertical, so we needed to have it collapse so we could make it longer.
See? That guy is the best. Normally, Nintendo would be all, “We cannot divulge any information regarding why there is an extendable stylus at this time.” But Konno? Fastball to your face.
And the system itself? You should read the Wired article to find out what point in the design process the hardware is. Hint: it’s done.
This news makes me hope in my tiny heart that we could possibly see a launch of the system this calendar year. Considering they already had 100 or so units at E3 to play with (and trust me, they felt “done”), it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that they’ve been churning out tons of units in the last month. The only hiccup with my theory is that no real software has been shown; everything has just been tech demos. They’re obviously working on games, but there’s no telling how far along they are. Regardless, I want this stupid system already.