So, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confirmed that the new 3D visuals of the upcoming 3DS handheld console will in fact be able to be turned off if the owner so desires. Apparently, the reasoning behind this is due to concerns the 3DS could have on people’s eyesight! Now, as someone who already has terrible eye’s this is somewhat of a relief, as is the fact the 3DS won’t actually require the user to wear special 3D glasses. Spectacle wearers are kind of shunned by 3D films and television aren’t they? As if the lives of the visually challenged aren’t hard enough with THAT crushing disappointment too.

But being able to easily turn off 3D wasn’t the only thing that was revealed by Mr Iwata, oh no… there’s more! He also revealed that the new machine will include enhanced anti-piracy measures, in order to combat the harmful effect illegal copies can have on software sales.  Now, I’m sure games developers, designers and artists worldwide are more interested in this little announcement than the being able to turn the 3D off thing.

Games piracy is more common than you’d think with millions of people illegally downloading games that the majority of us are more than happy to pay for. Unfortunately it costs the games industry billions a year. As a Train2Game student you wouldn’t want to work hard but then miss out on reaping the rewards of all your efforts now, would you? You’ll also need to make sure you copyright your work for a little bit of extra protection. Of course you may be more than happy to give away some of your games for free but only as a legal download in order to help you gain a foothold in the industry.

We don’t yet actually know what Nintendo will be doing to improve the anti-piracy capabilities of the 3DS and to be honest, nobody outside the company may ever find out. Mr Iwata didn’t explain any specifics, saying that by doing so he’d give “hints” to pirates…which is fair enough I suppose!

There’s no specific release date for the 3DS yet, but we can probably expect more to be revealed at next month’s E3 expo.