The Nintendo Switch is a little over a month away from release, which will provide a home console and handheld market in one package. The Nintendo Switch is most certainly a follow-up to the Wii U, and you would have thought it would also be the same for the 3DS, but Nintendo is once again saying that the 3DS is going to be around for the long haul.
Nintendo held their latest financial briefing today and the future of their products was obviously a big topic of discussion. Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima gave a lengthy presentation, part of which had him talking about the many successes of the 3DS as of recent. This naturally led to mention of whether the Nintendo Switch was replacing the system or not as well, in which he said:
“We will continue to introduce new titles that players can enjoy for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. We have heard speculation that Nintendo Switch will replace the Nintendo 3DS, as both are game systems that can be played outside the home, but Nintendo 3DS has unique characteristics that differ from those of Nintendo Switch. Furthermore, the price points and play experiences offered by the two systems are different and we do not see them as being in direct competition. We plan to continue both businesses separately and in parallel.
This slide shows the major announced games for Nintendo 3DS that have been recently released or that are announced for release later this year in our markets. We will have several follow-up titles from popular franchises on Nintendo 3DS and we are developing many other unannounced titles to continue to enrich the software lineup going forward.”
Even with these comments, we can strongly remember Nintendo claiming that the DS would not be replacing the Game Boy line at all and that it was in fact a third pillar. Once the DS took off though, the Game Boy Advance was mostly forgotten about and that line of systems ended. We will have to wait and see if the same happens here.
