Technology Spot

Until recently, Nintendo spent years reaping massive profits with its Wii console and DS handheld. Now, the company is reinvesting some of its earnings into a massive research and development facility near its headquarters in Kyoto, Japan.

According to a Nikkan report translated by Andria Sang, the R&D facility will begin construction in January 2012, with a projected 2013 completion date. Its price tag will be around ¥12 billion ($144.4 million), and it will rise seven stories off the ground. Its location will be a 40,582 square meter former golf course in Kyoto's Minami Ward, the same ward as Nintendo's headquarters building. The company's current main R&D facility is located in the more distant Higashiyama Ward.

The new building's closer proximity to its headquarters will improve efficiency because it will allow its 1,500 employees to be much closer to Nintendo's headquarters. When complete, the new facility will become Nintendo's flagship R&D facility and will focus on product development.

This past Sunday, Nintendo entered a new dimension with its latest portable, the glasses-free 3DS. The system quickly became Nintendo's fastest-selling portable of all time. However, the Japanese game company now says it is unlikely that 3D will be a part of its next home console.

The news stems from Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime, who told CNN that the next hardware product from Nintendo will be a Wii follow-up and that 3D likely will not be a part of it.

"Glasses-free is a big deal," Fils-Aime said. "We've not said publicly what the next thing for us will be in the home console space, but based on what we've learned on 3D, likely, that won't be it."

Further, Nintendo director and producer Hideki Konno said the company is resisting 3D implementation simply because it currently requires glasses.

"I think at Nintendo, we realize that any sort of goggle-type 3-D technology was not going to work," Konno said. "In order to make 3-D technology viable with video games, we thought we needed to have glasses-free 3-D."

As for the Wii successor, earlier this month brokerage firm Sterne Agee said it "would not be surprised" to see Nintendo show off its next console at this summer's Electronic Entertainment Expo, which runs June 7-9.