The Nintendo 3DS was originally announced in June 2010, and released in February 2011- it is going to be seven years old very soon, and its successor is already out with the Nintendo Switch. The 3DS is ancient technology at this point, and most support has already moved on from it, in house as well as external.
And yet, it refuses to die. The 3DS got an unexpected lease of life in 2016 with Pokemon GO and Pokemon Sun/Moon, which Nintendo continued in 2017 with a bunch of great games for the system, including Metroid, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Mario and Luigi, and Dragon Quest, as well as a brand new model with the New Nintendo 2DS XL. And now, even though 2018 looks slim pickings for 3DS owners unless they are Atlus fans, it looks like Nintendo will continue to produce the 3DS through this year.
In a new interview with Japanese paper Kyoto Shimbun (via Japanese Nintendo), Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima indicated that the 3DS will stick around for all of 2018, and is not going anywhere just yet. This might sound frustrating to Nintendo diehards who just want to see Nintendo go all in with the Switch, but it makes a lot of sense- a major part of Nintendo’s fanbase is still younger children, who can’t afford a Switch or its more expensive games, and the 3DS is far cheaper; that, plus it has a lot of games Nintendo can continue selling, too. Presumably, the 3DS will be kept around until Nintendo knows it can drop the Switch price to $200 or thereabouts. Which means there is a while to go, folks.
