Nintendo have apparently been wooing developers over to the 3DS with a new entry in the Animal Crossing series!

As expected Nintendo have been keeping publicly very quiet about its upcoming new handheld ahead of its official unveiling next week at E3 2010. But behind closed doors, the company have been showing the 3DS off to third-party developers, encouraging them to design software for it too.

What game has Ninty been showing off as a test-case for the system? According to Destructoid, it's a new 3DS version of life-sim Animal Crossing, where players live in a town full of colourful animals, collect bugs and find strange astronaut seagulls washed up on the beach.

The series found great success with its DS incarnation Animal Crossing: Wild World, which has to date sold over 9.5 million copies worldwide. The question is whether Nintendo will announce this new 3DS version as an official title next week.

Stick with N-Europe for your full E3 coverage!