So one thing that I think is interesting is that we really don't entirely know where Nintendo's business is going from here. While a lot of people seem to think Switch is replacing both Nintendo's home console and handheld line, Nintendo's consistent 3DS announcements despite the 3DS being in its 6th year (as well as announcements of at least one game releasing in 2018 and that they plan to support 3DS in 2018) seem to show that it isn't quite dead yet. But does that mean they're just supporting 3DS while Switch is having stock issues so they have something to fall back on if Switch doesn't have good legs?
Okay so the reason I made this thread is because I was thinking about things Nintendo has said in the past (even outside of statements just pertaining to the 3DS) and realized that there is a LARGE possibility that Nintendo will be releasing a 3DS successor possibly even as soon as next year. The 3DS successor is already probably completed or at least close to it. Nintendo is always working on new consoles, and they already mentioned having been working on a 3DS successor even after Switch was announced. And long before that Iwata said they never plan to replace their dedicated handheld line, and they had to be hard at work on Switch at that point too. Now it's of course very possible there could be another Game Boy Advance 2 situation, where the Switch becomes so crazy popular that they decide not to make use of the next 3DS, but we honestly have no idea how Switch is gonna perform in the long run. It's selling very well now, but we really don't know how exactly Nintendo is planning to make their money here. It's entirely possible that they need to be involved in the handheld business at the same time in order to profit as much as they generally do. (with the exception of the Wii U gen where they lost a ton of money on Wii U but 3DS kept them afloat)
3DS still sells, and in fact in Japan it's been selling almost as well as the Switch every week. So it's possible they'll keep on going with their dedicated handhelds. And quite honestly I wouldn't mind, I would even buy a new handheld over the Switch.
Okay so the reason I made this thread is because I was thinking about things Nintendo has said in the past (even outside of statements just pertaining to the 3DS) and realized that there is a LARGE possibility that Nintendo will be releasing a 3DS successor possibly even as soon as next year. The 3DS successor is already probably completed or at least close to it. Nintendo is always working on new consoles, and they already mentioned having been working on a 3DS successor even after Switch was announced. And long before that Iwata said they never plan to replace their dedicated handheld line, and they had to be hard at work on Switch at that point too. Now it's of course very possible there could be another Game Boy Advance 2 situation, where the Switch becomes so crazy popular that they decide not to make use of the next 3DS, but we honestly have no idea how Switch is gonna perform in the long run. It's selling very well now, but we really don't know how exactly Nintendo is planning to make their money here. It's entirely possible that they need to be involved in the handheld business at the same time in order to profit as much as they generally do. (with the exception of the Wii U gen where they lost a ton of money on Wii U but 3DS kept them afloat)
3DS still sells, and in fact in Japan it's been selling almost as well as the Switch every week. So it's possible they'll keep on going with their dedicated handhelds. And quite honestly I wouldn't mind, I would even buy a new handheld over the Switch.