E3 2010: Nintendo 3DS has game installs

Nintendo is set to provide enough internal memory in its forthcoming 3DS handheld console to allow users to store multiple games at once on the device.

It's not a surprising move, with Nintendo suffering badly in recent years from R4DS cartridge pirates and game file-sharing on the internet.

Allowing controlled game downloads to the device is clearly the most obvious way that the Japanese gaming giant can begin to wipe out that piracy problem, by offering its customers the option to download the game and store it on their device, as opposed to buying it on a cart.

Transitioning to download games

However, saying that the 3DS does still sport a traditional cartridge port, which presumably will allow it to play your collection of DS games, much in the same way as the initial model of the DS came with a Game Boy Advance port.

With solid state memory becoming increasingly cheaper by the day, it is obvious that Nintendo will use such storage in the 3DS. The only real questions left now are: "how much capacity will the 3DS have?" and "how much will the hardware and games cost?"

Clearly, we will not know the answers to those two questions until much closer to the planned retail release of the new console. However, that will of course not stop the internet from guessing, speculating and rumour-mongering about it until an official announcement is made.

This is how Nintendo's PR machine seems to work these days – the company merely lets its legions of fans on the internet generate the hype for them!

The news on the Nintendo 3DS featuring internal memory and allowing multiple games to be stored online comes from a solid and pretty reliable source – the Japanese financial paper Nikkei. If they are wrong, then we would expect Nintendo to request a retraction in the coming days.

If you don't see that, take it that your new 3DS that you will buy at some point in 2011 will feature downloadable games and updates, with Nintendo moving away from its traditional cartridges as soon as the market will allow it.

The Nintendo 3DS will feature a 3.5 inch widescreen (slightly larger than the current DS Lite-sized touch screen) four face buttons, a D-Pad and a real analogue stick.

Nintendo announced plans to work with movie studios on 3D movie deals and also announced plans to promote 3D photography on the 3DS.