Early this morning, in a press release posted at Nintendo’s Japanese site, the company officially announced the highly anticipated successor to the Nintendo DS. Temporarily named the “Nintendo 3DS”, the handheld will boast hardware with which “games can be enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses.” It will also be compatible will all current DS and DSi software. The release reports that the handheld will be released before the end of the fiscal year ending March 2011.

Engadget points out reports from Japan detailing known hardware for the 3DS. Ashai claims that the handheld’s 3D output will possible via “parallax barrier LCDs” from Sharp and is backed by reports from Nikkei which also adds that the displays will measure four inches diagonally (each).

Nikkei also claims the device will feature a “3D control stick” (presumably to be an analog stick), support rumble, longer battery life and speedier WiFi. While speaking with a representative from Nintendo of America, The New York Times has confirmed that we will get our first hands-on with the new hardware at E3 2010, scheduled to be held from June 15 in Los Angeles.

[via Joystiq]

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