How Nintendo will advertise the 3DS

In case you missed it (where you been?!) - Nintendo demoed their latest handheld, the Nintendo 3DS at e3 this year.

The dual-screen device is like a more powerful DS, but with the added bonus of "glasses-free" 3D on the top screen!

Don't ask me how this voodoo works, but people who have used it are amazed at what Ninty have achieved! Problem is, screenshots can't show the effect, nor can videos!

This has given rise to the question - how can Nintendo advertise the platform? Will showing 2D images be enough? People might just think it's another DS (bigger, lighter) rather than a whole new platform.

Here's what I think they'll do - I think they'll do the same thing they did with the Wii, well before we even knew what it looked like. They showed videos of people playing with the wiimote, and the sounds coming from the game, but not the game itself, nor the device itself!

That way, all you saw were some genuinely impressed people experiencing this new device, without actually seeing it! You would see a woman pretending to chop vegetables with her wiimot, and you'd hear the sounds, just not see the game. A man playing tennis or golf, a boy swinging a sword, and so on.

It sound stupid but it worked, and it worked very well - whisking up a frenzy of hype for the Wii.

And I bet that's what they'll do here - show some "normal" and "core" people's reactions to playing on the 3DS - couple that with demo units in stores, and you've got yourself the best hype machine there ever is - the general public.

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