The new Nintendo 3DS launched in North America on Sunday and in Europe on Friday and now some early adopters are reporting that the device locks up and displays a "black screen of death."
According to several video game sites, some owners of the 3-D gaming gadget have found that a black screen appears along with instructions to hold the power button down and hard-reset the machine.
The question is, does the issue stem from the device itself or is it faulty games that are causing the problem?
According to the GoNintendo blog, the screen doesn’t appear to be associated with any one game in particular. Gamers playing the device have run into the warning screen while playing "Pilotwings Resort," "Super Monkey Ball 3D," "Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars," and others. Meanwhile, players posting to the Official Nintendo Magazine forums have run into the same issue while using the device’s own pre-loaded apps.
You can check out others who’ve had the issue in forums at DigitalSpy, AVForums and NeoGAF.
Certainly it's not unusual for early adopters to discover bugs and glitches in new devices. And at this point, it's difficult to tell how widespread the problem really is. Note that In-Game Editor Todd Kenreck and I have had our 3DS machines for well over a week now and haven’t had a lick of trouble with them.
I’ve contacted Nintendo to see if they can tell us anything official and will update this as soon as there’s news.
Meanwhile, are you the owner of a new Nintendo 3DS? If so, how’s the device working for you?
(Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.)
For more Nintendo 3DS news, check out:
- Six things to love (and hate) about the Nintendo 3DS
- 'Pilotwings Resort' is a soaring good time ... when it's not making you woozy
- Nintendo's virtual puppies want to lick your real face
Winda Benedetti writes about gamesfor msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things right here on Twitter.
