San Francisco (CNN) -- Sunday's debut of the Nintendo 3DS, a hand-held game system with a 3-D display that doesn't require special glasses, isn't just the culmination of several years of research and development for one product.
It could be a milestone for a company that's spent decades refining three-dimensional technology, only to be met with resistance from consumers.
Playing games in 3-D "is something that we've been continually testing and working on at Nintendo," said Hideki Konno, who has directed or produced some of Nintendo's most prized franchises and was a key person in the 3DS's development, through an interpreter.
"We've never actually stopped looking at 3-D as a viable product," Konno said. "And it just so happens that the technology in the marketplace now coincides with what we wanted to do. So actually, it was just very fortuitous timing."
It could be a milestone for a company that's spent decades refining three-dimensional technology, only to be met with resistance from consumers.
Playing games in 3-D "is something that we've been continually testing and working on at Nintendo," said Hideki Konno, who has directed or produced some of Nintendo's most prized franchises and was a key person in the 3DS's development, through an interpreter.
"We've never actually stopped looking at 3-D as a viable product," Konno said. "And it just so happens that the technology in the marketplace now coincides with what we wanted to do. So actually, it was just very fortuitous timing."