Nintendo Direct: New 3DS Firmware coming, adds patches and folders.

Nintendo have announced straight out of Japan that they will be bringing a new firmware update to the Nintendo 3DS.

The update will allow users to sort their games and other downloaded titles into folders allowing you to better sort your games, and various other pieces of software that you may have. Each folder will apparently hold up to 60 items and you can name them yourself too! I much needed feature, and it’s great to see things like this being added as time goes by. The folders have their own 3D blue icon, and the intial of your title will appear on the folder.

The other feature of this firmware update, which I find to be more interesting, is that the new patch will allow games to receive software updates/patches. The first titles announced to receive patches are Mario Kart 7, Kingdom Hearts 3D and New Love Plus, the last two of which have only been released in Japan. The Mario Kart title update will fix some shortcut issues that people have been having with the game, which are apparently detrimental to everyone’s enjoyment of the title.

We’ve not heard any announcement of the release date during the broadcast itself, however Nintendo of America have announced via their Twitter that the update should be coming out on the 25th of April. Besides these two new features, no other functionality has been detailed.

We are glad to see the 3DS coming more in line with other consoles in terms of online infrastructure – but enabling title updates/patching is just the beginning.