So Nintendo today announced the next big 3DS peripheral the first official Nintendo headset for the handheld device. The device will be launching November 4th in Europe. A launch date for North America has not been announced and the devices retail cost is expected to be £24.99 with a suggested retail price of 29.99$ expected for the device upon release in North America.

The device was developed by PowerA the headset will offer features far more advanced then past handheld head sets. Like buttons for music selection the thing is with barely any MP3 capabilities what music will we use these buttons for? Another huge selling feature is full voice chat support, however with Mario Kart 7 being the first major Nintendo published title to feature online and no mention of voice chat capabilities. What good does that feature do? The only major feature that will be useful at the moment is volume control enabling you adjust the volume meaning you can use the head set like a set of headphones.

The thing I wonder is if Nintendo is officially the manufacturer and distributor and licensed the peripheral officially. Will we see increased use of music on the 3DS? Maybe increased MP3 capabilities with a cartridge that enables users to link up to eShop's music section.

Also with DS very few games supported the headset, the peripheral was bare bones and got released late in the consoles life span. With the release of this headset before software is even available to support it. Does this hint that Nintendo may take a stronger approach to online gaming? With increased chatting capabilities within games I think that this device could have a lot of potential in the long run!

What do you think?

Source

What do you mean by "without mp3 capabilities"?
The thing plays mp3s just fine. The interface is not the best in the world, though...

Nintendo 3DS sound channel allows you to record small amounts of music. But I am unaware of an MP3 channel where one can listen to MP3's purchased on a shop or transfered from a computer? I was unaware of any MP3 playing capabilities is their a channel in Japan for listening to MP3's? I've never tried loading MP3's onto my SD card I wasn't aware that you could do so and play them on the 3DS.

If 3DS has MP3 playback support and capabilities then Nintendo has done a very bad job advertising and educating its user base to the existance of the service and feature.

If you put an MP3 on the SD card that comes with the system, you can play it back in the sound channel.

I was unaware you could listen to MP3's other then the recording made in the Nintendo Sound Channel. I made the correction to the thread correcting this flaw. Thank you for pointing it out , my apologies for making this mistake. Still the 3DS lacks mainstream MP3 capabilities and what little capabilities are availible aren't widely advertised or taken advantage of. Maybe Nintendo should do a good reworking of Nintendo Sound Channel to make it more like an MP3 channel with playlists and all the other features that come with standard MP3 players these days.

My godbrother is 10yrs old and he knew the 3DS could play MP3s. He comes to me all the time and asks me for songs.

well if you don't see it, it doesn't mean its not there ;)

I thought you meant these

My that seems pointless. I mean there are currently zero applications that would support voice chat or input, correct?

Unless this is for Monster Hunter, which did utilize Wii Speak on Wii.

Will Nintendo announce voice chat for MK 7 or MH3G? Who knows...
According to amazon.co.uk you can take off the mic. Headphone and headset in one seems like a good choice for the future. Just hope the headset is actually used down the road.