[RUMOR] German newspaper gives away Nintendo 3DS launch date, price?

On Wednesday, Nintendo has promised to spill the beans on the Nintendo 3DS – namely, when we can get it, and what it will cost.

For Nintendo, telling us when they’ll announce something as big as this – an announcement of an announcement, if you will – is a nice way of building hype. That is … until a trashy German newspaper comes along and blurts out your secrets.

That’s right: according to today’s edition of Bild, the Nintendo 3DS will launch on November 11 in Japan, and in the first quarter of 2011 in Europe. No U.S. details were revealed, but Bild did claim the device will cost €200, about $270 at current exchange rates. If that figure is right, I’d actually expect a $200 price point in the States; game hardware often sells on a €1 = $1 basis.

Bild also says Mario Kart 3D, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle will be launch games. That’s, er, a heck of a launch line-up.

Of course, whether you actually believe the paper is another matter. That said, it has a good record at this kind of thing. Nintendo Everything points out that Bild caught wind of the Wii two days before it was announced, so who knows? What I do know is that Nintendo needs to plug all these leaks in its PR division fo’ real; when was the last time a big Nintendo hardware announcement didn’t get leaked early?

[NeoGAF, via Nintendo Everything]