The Nintendo Switch will change how gamers play with their home consoles. Having a home console with the ability to become a handheld console is a big deal and the Switch does it very well. But with the Nintendo Switch acting like a handheld, what’s the fate of Nintendo’s dedicated handheld system, the Nintendo 3DS?
In an interview with Wired , Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime was asked about the 3DS and what the release of the Switch meant for the handheld. What he said should be encouraging to fans of the 3DS.
“ 3DS has a long life in front of it. We’ve already announced games that will be launching in the first couple quarters of this year. There are a number of big games coming. And in our view, the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch are going to live side-by-side. You’re going to be meeting different price points, you’re going to be meeting different types of consumers, you’re going to have the newest, freshest content available on Nintendo Switch, you’ve got a thousand-game library available on Nintendo 3DS, plus some key new ones coming. They’re going to coexist just fine. We’ve done this before, managing two different systems. I think there’s a sense that Nintendo Switch is a portable device. It is portable. But at its heart, it’s a home console that you can take with you on the go.”
This isn’t the first time Nintendo has been asked about the 3DS in the wake of the Switch. Back when the Nintendo Switch was first revealed, company reps told Polygon that the Switch is a home console, first and foremost.
“Nintendo Switch is a home gaming system first and foremost,” the company told Polygon when asked if the system was going to impact the sale of the 3DS portable systems. “We have made no announcement regarding the future of Nintendo 3DS.
“Obviously with sales of almost 60 million 3DS portables worldwide, there’s still a huge hunger for new games, such as Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. There are many more games in the pipeline.”
Nintendo announced a list of 3DS games for 2017 during a 3DS-focused Nintendo Direct that revealed Pikmin, Yoshi’s Wooly World and Ever Oasis’ release dates, so it seems the handheld still has a lot of life left in it.
So what do you think of the Nintendo 3DS existing alongside the Nintendo Switch? Sound off in the comments section below.
