This year will see Nintendo finally release its hotly awaited portable gaming console

Throughout the ages, we抳e lived through different eras of productivity and innovation. The 1800抯 saw us living through the industrial age and the late 1990抯 saw us entering the information age. Most recently we抳e entered the age of technical innovation, where we抳e seen the rise and fall of technologies that are there to help make our lives easier. We have also benefited from the advantages these modern conveniences bring to us. The same has happened in the realm of home entertainment, especially with the latest generation of games consoles in particular Nintendo抯 Wii. This game-changer appealed to gamers of all ages & allowed them to become actively involved with what was happening onscreen in front of them.

This year will see Nintendo finally release its hotly awaited portable gaming console, the Nintendo 3DS. The company has dabbled with 3D technology previously when it unveiled the VisualBoy. Released in the early 1990抯, it utilised a bulky pair of glasses to surround the wearer in a 3D environment. However with widespread reports of fatigue and the glasses causing headaches, it was discontinued shortly after. But with the 3DS, Nintendo may have a winning piece of technology on its hands, as a key feature is that there is no need to wear a pair of polarized glasses to experience games in 3D.

What抯 worth noting though is that Nintendo has also included a health warning with the 3DS, saying that 3D gameplay causes eye fatigue to occur much faster than it would playing a standard video game. They go on to further warn consumers that children under the ages of 6 should not be allowed to play games in its 3D mode because at this age, children抯 eyes are still developing and vision is not fully formed.

Opticians are worried that parents will not take note of this warning and allow their children to play the Nintendo 3DS unsupervised for long periods of time, without thinking of the future wellbeing of their children抯 vision. This could have unbeneficial long term effects on children抯 vision that may only be discovered when they go for their annual eye tests.

The games industry has its back covered as they have always included health warnings with all of their games, both as onscreen messages and literature on the box to help consumers understand what the effect of playing a game continuously can have on someone. But the overall decision will be in the hands of consumers and whether they抎 like their children to play or not.