The manner in which Nintendo chose to tell the world of its new handheld, the 3DS, was a strange one: a crudely-worded press release in the middle of the night. No pictures. No logo. Ever wonder why that was?
It wasn't some exercise in marketing. It wasn't to torture you. It wasn't to intentionally undermine the impending Western release of the Nintendo DSi XL. It was, instead, a move by the publisher to head some Japanese journalists off at the pass, who it appears had found out about the new console and were going to blab all about it.
"Apparently, the Japanese press was all over it and talked with suppliers there and Nintendo just wanted to get out ahead by breaking the news to prevent a leak," says analyst Billy Pidgeon. "Does it clash with the DSi XL? Yes it does."
What strange days we live in. Sony and Microsoft stuff leaks all the time, but Nintendo is usually tight as a drum. For word to slip out ahead of an official reveal means either Nintendo is getting sloppy or, as is more likely (and more hopeful for future scoops), the Japanese press is finally realising that getting hold of this information isn't as hard as they once thought.