There has been a lot of speculation about the status of the 3DS with the Switch on the horizon. While Nintendo has made it abundantly clear that the Switch succeeds the Wii U, the position of the 3DS, for now, has remained more ambiguous.
However, now, in an interview with The Telegraph, Shinya Takahashi, Director at Nintendo and General Manager of Planning and Entertainment, has confirmed that Nintendo plans on supporting the 3DS into at least 2018, given its cheaper price point making it the perfect entry into the Nintendo ecosystem.
“Certainly I think 3DS from a price perspective is quite a bit lower, and it’s a system we’ve released a very large library for,” Takahashi said. “So I think from that perspective it’s a very good system for kids to have as their first system. We still see a lot of potential for 3DS in that area,” said Takahashi. “And with that in mind we’re thinking of games to release for 3DS not just in 2017, but in 2018 as well.”
He’s right- and especially given the Switch is not backward compatible with the 3DS, this gives the 3DS a unique chance to continue to thrive and survive even with the Switch existing. It will be interesting to see the kinds of games Nintendo puts on the system going forward.
