No Nintendo 3DS in Your Christmas Stocking

It does matter if you've made the naughty or nice list, the only way you're scoring a Nintendo 3DS console for Christmas (that's right, we're not afraid to say "Christmas") is if you find a prototype left behind in a bar, a la the iPhone 4 pre-release fiasco.

You can scratch off New Year's too. Nintendo doesn't plan on releasing the 3DS until February 26, 2011 in Japan, with "other markets" slated for March, according to a report in The New York Times.

That gives Nintendo one more holiday shopping season to shove its regular DS console into consumers' hands. After that, it's game on for the 3DS, Nintendo's upcoming glasses-free 3D console. And before you chalk it up as a gimmick, the 3DS has already been scoring praise from those who played with a prototype at this year's E3 convention. When it does finally launch, Nintendo will have the market all to itself, as no one else seems to yet be working on a 3D console.