The new console can see three-dimensional images without glasses.

Earlier today hundreds of users lined up to several Tokyo department stores eager to be the first to get their hands on the 3ds, most of them had already booked over the internet on January 20 when it opened within orders. With a price close to $ 305 (579,200 pesos), Internet bookings for the Nintendo 3DS came to be exhausted in less than two hours on sites like Amazon and Rakuten, and at noon on Saturday and it was impossible to find a buy electronics stores in Tokyo.

The market launch in Japan comes a month before the 3DS get to Europe, on 25 March, and the United States two days later.

The brand new Nintendo handheld console weighs 230 grams and has a 3.25-inch top screen for 3D images and a touch less than 3.02 inches, plus two outdoor cameras which can take stereo images.

It also has a side switch that deactivates the three dimensional effect when the user wants, something the company should do when the players are children under six years.

It is also supported via WiFi connection with other versions of the DS, including DSiLL DSi and the Wii, and features an automatic connection system, dubbed ‘Street pass’which allows the exchange of information among its users in the style of social networking.

Although the price is above models such as the Nintendo DS or Wii, Nintendo hopes that the 3DS consolidate its dominance in front of other portable devices like Sony PSP or smartphone.

It also seeks to recover the share of sales lost by the DS and the Wii, two successful products but old: the end of March, the manufacturer of Kyoto 3DS hopes that the global sales reached about 4 million units.

Its predecessor, the Nintendo DS, launched in 2004, had sold over 130 million units worldwide through December 2010.

For fiscal year 2010 ending in March 2011, Nintendo expects sales of its entire DS (including 3DS) are placed in more than 23 million units, compared to 16 million units of the Wii.

For the moment we offer in Japan just a dozen games for your console in 3D, including titles such as “Winning Eleven (Pro Evolution) Soccer ‘or’ Super Street Fighter IV ‘, but the catalog is expected to expand in the coming months .

With his latest venture, Nintendo seeks to gain ground against its main rival Sony and advancing opad or devices like the Apple iPhone, which has not hidden its intention to compete directly with the two Japanese giants for market leadership videjouegos laptops.

Amid this competition, between April and December 2010 (first nine months of fiscal Japan) Nintendo profits fell 74 percent, which the company blamed the strong yen and falling sales for a months short of news.

So has pinned his hopes on the 3D market, while its competitor Sony expects to launch later this year which will be the successor to the PSP, a new portable console tentatively named as Next Generation Portable (NGP).

This device will have Wi-Fi, touch screen OLED five inches, a resolution four times greater than its predecessor and 3G connection, allowing you to be continuously connected to mobile networks.