Nintendo chief assures 3DS isn’t "dangerous"

It’s always fun to live in fear of lawsuits. Like every company, Nintendo wants to make sure it has all its bases covered, and its much-publicized warnings about the upcoming 3DS handheld is starting to have an effect.

Nintendo has posted warnings and will include disclaimers with the portable system that children under the age of six should not play the 3DS in 3D mode. The company has cited “experts” in the field who say young children’s eyes are too under-developed, and exposing them to prolonged periods of taxing 3D visuals could cause damage.

Other experts claim there’s really nothing to worry about, but Nintendo can’t risk a lawsuit from parents whose children develop problems from gaming. The company’s CEO, however, has now come forward to say the 3DS is not “dangerous.”

“We are being proactive about informing our customer, even though it may not necessarily be positive for our sales,” said the CEO, Satoru Iwata, in a Wall Street Journal interview.

Such warnings are typical for 3D products, like TVs and Sony’s PS3. The difference here is that the very young crowd is part of Nintendo’s bread and butter. It has the largest hold of young gamers and it could be shutting them off with the latest device.

But then again, in a world of excessive warnings, few are ever seriously followed. There will undoubtedly still be plenty of parents who buy the 3DS for their kids, and then never even realize if they have eye problems in the future. Of course, most of them probably won’t. 3D injuries can only happen if players are exposed to the visuals for prolonged periods of times over the course of several times.

So, in the end, it might just be a wash. But it’s still hilarious that video games need to be given health warnings. [[Nintendo]]