Forgive me for my cynicism, but I simply don’t trust Nintendo to properly deliver when it talks about online. I love the company, I love the games, but they just haven’t really figured it out yet. There are inklings towards it, some indications that perhaps they’re realizing that the whole ‘internet’ fad isn’t going away like they had hoped it would. They seemed to say at E3 that the Wii U was going to have some kind of comprehensive service, and the shop that they’ve created for the 3DS is actually pretty well put together, if horribly understocked at the moment. So it was with a bit of surprise that they announced the 3DS video service would be going live in Europe on the 13th of July. The North American service hasn’t been announced yet, other than an projected release date of the summer.
Those in Japan are already enjoying some programming, such as ‘Magic Class 3D’ which is exactly what you’re thinking it is, and ‘Idoling Sumo 3DS’ which actually isn’t what you think it is, it’s a challenge type show done by a popular female musical group. Channels are updated daily, and are growing in popularity.
There isn’t much in the way of information, but each country is expected to have content that is tailored for them. For example, episodes of ‘Oscar’s Oasis’, a show currently broadcast in Australia on the local Disney Channel, are expected to be released. These probably indicate a launch of the service in Australia and Oceania soon, or at least will give them false hope. The German station is expected to have some documentary type programming as well, so it should be quite interesting to see how the content changes around the world, and if there’s any easy way to access the content from another country.
I’m currently in England, with a 3DS I registered in Canada, so I’ll be sure to give it a go on the 13th to see if there’s any hope of seeing what the Europeans are up to, while us North Americans look for another reason to use our 3DS. So far we’ve had the music video pre-loaded, some game trailers and a Green Lantern movie trailer. What 3D content do you want to see, that would actually make the channel worth your while?
