If you were hoping for the new portable game system from Nintendo this year, thenI am sorry to report you will have to wait until 2011.

Nintendo slashed its earnings forecast by more than half Wednesday after announcing that its 3DS game machine, packed with glasses-free 3-D technology, won’t be ready to go on sale for Christmas.

The 3DS will go on sale in February in Japan, and March in Europe and the U.S., missing the year-end shopping seaon which is a critical time for all game-makers to rake in profits.

The portable machine looks much like the DS machines now on sale, and has two panels. The top panel shows 3-D imagery, giving players a relatively immediate illusion of virtual reality.

The 3-D games don’t require the special glasses that are needed for 3-D theater movies or 3-D home-console games like rival Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3. They also don’t need 3-D TV sets.

I have always loved the Nintendo gaming systems.  Some of my favorite games of all time hail from the Nintendo exclusively.  This new system looks to be rad, but Nintendo will have to step up the game in regards as online playability and graphics.