Today Nintendo announced that the 3DS, the company’s latest hand-held video game console, will go on sale March 27th for $250.

As my colleague David Ewalt points out, that’s a pretty high price considering you could buy a Wii for less money or a PlayStation 3 for just a bit more.

But for now at least, those home consoles won’t let you play in 3-D and that’s the really cool thing about the newest Nintendo toy. Ewalt had a chance to play with the machine earlier this year and he says that the 3-D works really well. (A big bonus, it doesn’t require 3-D glasses.)

Despite the fact that Nintendo is including a warning with the machine that children under 6 shouldn’t play it at all (and that adults should stop if they start to feel sick), the 3DS is expected to be a huge seller.

And that’s great news for the movie industry. 2010 was a big year for 3-D, the technology helped push two movies (Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland) to over $1 billion each in ticket sales.

But in order for 3-D to become a true money-maker for the industry the way that DVDs once were, 3-D has to move out of the theaters and into the home. More televisions that can show 3-D are popping up on the market every day (and consumer electronics companies are wisely not charging a premium for the added technology). Stations like ESPN are committing to more 3-D programming.

But people need to grow more comfortable with 3-D before they invest in glasses, buy new TVs and start upgrading their DVD libraries to 3-D.

The 3DS is expected to go a long way toward improving that comfort level. As you start to see kids sitting on buses and walking down the street playing 3-D games, 3-D will become an even more integrated part of how we experience entertainment. And that means studios are going to be able to film more and retrofit movies more into 3-D, which will mean lots more profits down the line.

Original post here: http://blogs.forbes.com/dorothypomerantz/2011/01/19/why-the-3ds-matters-to-the-movie-industry/?partner=yahootix