Nintendo 3DS to come with Netflix, hot spot access

SAN FRANCISCO  Nintendo's upcoming 3DS handheld video game system is more entertaining than previously touted, coming with a new wireless hot spot access arrangement with AT&T and a Netflix deal.

The console giant unveiled its Netflix-streamed movies and agreement with AT&T for access to 10,000 hot spots Wednesday here at the Game Developers Conference. The move comes as Nintendo's new $250 handheld is due to arrive at U.S. stores on March 27.

To stoke demand, more than 30 games will be released within the first three months it's available in the U.S. Also set for later launch is a version of a classic, its 3-D Super Mario game. "We would like to create a new dimension of Super Mario, and we would like to showcase what 3D means," Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said in an opening speech at the conference.

In Japan, where the device went on sale last week, consumers have already snapped up more than 400,000 of the 3DS handhelds, which don't require wacky 3-D glasses.

"The primary function of the 3DS is to play games," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime.

The 3DS will get many of these new features in a May software update; also coming then is a Nintendo eShop that will sell remastered 3-D Nintendo classic games and older Game Boy games.

Nintendo hopes the 3DS can help attract non-gamers even more successfully than its Wii console system and past Nintendo DS handhelds.

Nintendo expects to ship 4 million systems worldwide by the end of March. "If I'm a consumer and I want to be playing with my Nintendo 3Ds on March 27th, I would go pre-order it," Fils-Aime said.