This morning Nintendo held its long-awaited 3DS press conference in New York City, letting the world (or at least North America) know when it could expect the next generation of handheld gaming. Beginning on March 27th (March 25th in Europe), you'll be able to get going on three dimensional gaming without glasses! The best part is, in spite of many analysts dire predictions on an exorbitant price, it will only cost $249. On launch day, two colors of the console will be available, those being Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black.

Additionally, Nintendo's president Reggie Fils-Aime announced that the 3DS would only use on friend code across all games, rather than needing to get a unique code for each title. Further, if you're playing with someone on the same Wi-Fi network, you won't need a friend code at all. There will be 30 games released for the 3DS between the launch date and the opening of this summer's E3 on June 7th, which Reggie stated would range in genre from "sports, action, shooter, fighter, family, racing, RPG".

If past history is any kind of indicator, you'll likely need to pre-order a 3DS if you want one on March 27th. We're not too far removed from the era of Wii shortages, and all the evidence for the new handheld point to an equal, if not larger, number of people wanting to get it as soon as possible. Retailers will be setting up 3DS play stations between now and the release date, if you're curious as to how well the system functions before putting down your hard-earned money.

[Source]