With Nintendo currently in the process of introducing their new handheld to the gaming world I think it is important to talk about one important question, which is: How is handheld gaming going to benefit from 3D? Because obviously the 3D gaming Sony will offer on the Playstation 3 (and probably their next PSP) will look much more impressive and will be much more advanced.
So with Nintendo probably unable to compete with the cinematic experiences to be found on home consoles and the pressure from Iwata to release products that are cheap and simple to use, how can Nintendo actually broaden the handheld gaming market with the 3DS?
And as always with Nintendo’s recent products the answer is not “advanced visuals” or “it has the better technology”.
This thing will succeed because Nintendo will put 3D visuals in a new context of use.
To get a better unerstanding of what this means: You can use nuclear energy to provide electricity to millions of people and thus make their lives easier. You can also use it to kill people. Same tech, different values...
As most people will ask themselves now what this new context of use is, look at movies like “Avatar” to get a better picture. 3D movies are hot. Everyone wants to watch 3D movies because it is so cool to see the effects. But besides the usual bunch of hardcore gamers nobody seems to be interested in 3D gaming so far. Why is this?
First of all 3D gaming set-ups will be rather expensive compared to the 3DS. You either need a special TV or you’ll have to buy an HD console. But that’s not the important thing here. To get a better understanding of the problem you have to ask yourself: “What is Sony’s intention with 3D on Playstation 3?” The answer is: They want to wow you. They want to impress you because it is such an advanced technology and feels like “the future”. Because of this Sony wants you to feel that 3D on Playstation 3 will be:
1) Expensive (because they want you, the core gamers, the high demanding cutsomers, to buy this!)
2) A technological leap (because, again, high demanding customers really like this)
3) Visually stunning (because high demanding customers demand... well, high quality from their products!)
...and so on. You get the deal now. Basically Sony is trying to move to higher tier market segments with this, because high demanding customers pay way more for the products they buy and this will increase Sony's profit. So this is not bad at all but Nintendo's handheld will not focus on higher tier market segments. Instead they will try to cater to the lower market segments, the ones that didn't buy a Nintendo DS. And because Nintendo's philosophy is about value innovation and catering to new audiences and not about technological progress you pretty much will have to reverse those values, which shows us a very different picture. Nintendo's 3D gaming approach will be...
1) Cheap (because lower tier markets do not want to pay premium prices)
2) Easy to use and easy to understand (no 3D glasses! No HDTV set-up! And they'll try to make people feel familiar with it)
3) Follow a 3D approach that is more mass market (something that makes you go "Oh I want to try this, too!")
You can easily see from the recent interview with John Koller that he is very much into the "higher tier market" thing and does not look at the whole tech from a different "value-angle": "Having been in the portable space for quite awhile, I think it's an interesting move but one I'd like to see where they go from a demographic standpoint. 8 and 9 year olds playing 3D is a little bit of a stretch given where some of our research is right now."
Koller is looking at 3D as a way to move to higher tier market segments! This is why he doesn't understand Nintendo's approach at all. To Koller, this looks like Nintendo has gone completely insane by trying to ram expensive and complex 3D tech down the kids' throats! But they haven't because they are looking at 3D from a different point of view. They try to apply different values to the same technology.
So why is Nintendo implementing this? And why is it going to work? The answer is simply: Watch Avatar. Watch Alice in Wonderland. Watch any well-made 3D movie that is catering to a big market and you'll notice that especially the people who don't like "hardcore" gaming will enjoy them. Because they are simple to watch, cheap to watch, easy to get into and they cater to a big market.
With its 3D handheld Nintendo will try to win the lower tier market segments. They will make sure you'll see a lot of easy-to-use games on their system and they'll actually use 3D to make it easy for people to get into gaming. Because 3D makes people curious! They want to see it. They want to touch it. I'll take any bet especially women will love the 3D effects in the games because they'll like how they look and how they make you curious about the game. And imagine how easy it is for Nintendo to get new people to touch the handheld when they see simply and easy 3D effects!
So yes, it is not only about the technology but mainly about the context of use. Sony could very well reveal a new PSP with 3D effects soon. But Sony will use 3D to make the games look more "hardcore" and more "advanced" and more high-tech (to get high demanding customers to buy it) while Nintendo will use 3D to make games look more simple, more interesting, easier to use an more mass market. Neither is bad (!) but Nintendo will definitely win the bigger market segments as long as they keep their different values.
Oh and I'm quite sure when Nintendo will reveal the 3DS at E3 people will go "this isn't very impressive" or "I've seen better 3D effects than this". But that won't really matter.
Oh and it is almost 1 AM here so I was quite tired while writing this, so: Sorry if it is hard to read at some points 
