What treats lie in store?

The 3DS eShop, one of the console's most anticipated functions, won't be available until May, and Nintendo's hardware head honcho Hideki Konno wants to assure you it's for a good reason: so it's good.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Konno admitted previous digital shopfronts for the Wii and DS haven't been up to the standard required, and the decision to launch the eShop in May is an attempt to get it right from the start.

Previous online shops for the consoles have been browser-based, but the new eShop will be a native application that combines shopping with promotional videos, demos and user ratings. Konno is keen for the application to create a big impact on users:

And again, we're taking more time because we want to be able to create a system where a consumer sees a promotion and says, "Wow, that looks great!" Sees a game demo, game trailer, whatever it is, and says, "I want that!" And the ability to then say "Now I can purchase it right here without having to back out and go somewhere else" — we want to provide that experience. So that's one other reason why we're not bringing it out with the system itself.

We wait to see how the eShop improves on previous Nintendo download storefronts when it's released in May.

[source gamasutra.com]