why?

Because that'd mean they'd be releasing it in less than 6 months. In reality, if they wanted to make the Xmas rush, they'd have to release it by mid november. That's only 5 months from now. It looks like there's a lot more that needs to be done with the 3DS than the "finishing touches." They don't have a price yet (they probably haven't sorted out their suppliers yet), their ideas for online are vague, and their games are still all just trailers and tech demos for the most part. It would really be pushing it to get it out before December.

I'm surprised they could even commit to within a year. It really sounds like most developers have only recently gotten their hands on it. I could see it coming out this year in Japan and by March in the West, but I'd bet the third party software will be mostly ports and quickly tossed together experiments, not the amazing launch so many seem to be expecting from the big list of developers working on it.

Not that I'd complain. It's still a DS, so it's not like there won't be a ginormous back catalog of games to play on it while developers work on all those big name games announced.

As long as kid icarus and purple 3ds are at launch, I just may be the happiest guy in the world

This sounds about accurate. I'd be willing to wait for it if better games got released from more dev time. That and I could use the time to save up some funds for it.

most people who played it thought it felt like a final or nearly final version, with little to anything needing improvement. iwata said that there definitely won't be any changes made to the 3D screen technology between now and release, so i don't think there's much left to do with the system itself.

as far as the pricing and features go, i don't interpret nintendo withholding that information as meaning that they don't know it yet themselves; they're very good at keeping things quiet until they want you to know, and i'm sure they've got a good idea of where they want to go with price and features.

a lot of the games at E3 were rough demos, but considering that we don't know how far along many of them are and that many of them are remakes of games over a decade old, i'm sure nintendo could have a good selection available by christmas. some, like metal gear, seemed to be more of an idea than a game at this point, but starfox sounds like it's was a pretty strong build. nintendo said they've done extensive eye health testing with the 3DS using actual games, which tells me they've got more than few demos at this point.

i'm not arguing that you're wrong, because there are good points against the 3DS coming out this year, but i think nintendo can pull it off.

We're not going to get it this year. Possible, yes, but extremely unlikely.

It's funny, though, because I often said on this very site (when people were downplaying the DSi as a temporary measure and expecting a DS2 immediately after) that the DSi would have a minimum 2 years as the primary Nintendo handheld before a successor comes along. For Japan, that 2 year mark will be hit this November. For the US, it would mean launching the 3DS right at the end of March. That actually lines up pretty well to what I now expect to happen. Way to go, me of the past.

About the game titles.. amazon just listed Nintendogs + Cats for pre-order for $39.99
Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Nintendogs-Cats-Nintendo-DS/dp/B002I08ZTI/
So that might be the price for most 3DS games..

That's not too bad a price for games. Hopefully ones that aren't in 3D will be cheaper (and you know a lot will be done not in 3D, so they can also throw them on the app store or something if they're not super successful).

I think we should expect a price between 270-300$ here in europe, that new 3D technology don't seem much cheap, so i don't hink we should expect such a low price like the DSi system release.

I think $40 would be reasonable, but I could also see developers leaving the price at $30. I mean, think about it. Isn't one of the best things about 3D it's $20 NA price?

I saw an article that had retail experts expecting a $250-$300 USD price tag with the games at $40 USD. Pretty much the same price as PSP GO.