The Switch is Not the End of the 3DS

The Switch Is Not Meant To Be Nintendo’s Next Handheld

It’s been a couple of weeks since Nintendo dropped a ton of info on their new home console/handheld hybrid: the Nintendo Switch (or the NX if you’ve been living under a rock for the past 6 months).

Opinions have been mixed but one piece of info that people have been pretty skeptical about is a statement from Nintendo of America president: Reggie Fils-Aime, letting the public know that Nintendo has no plans to phase out the 3DS and the handheld will still receive a bunch of support going forward.

Naturally, the internet acted as it usually does throwing up its arms, screaming “LIES!” and making several assumptions without doing any proper research into the matter.

I’ve seen so many articles and videos online about how Nintendo won’t actually support the 3DS or how they should just kill it off if they actually want to support it. Most arguments tend to reference how Nintendo handled the Game Boy line after the DS was brought into the picture.

For those who aren't aware of what I’m talking about, when the original DS was being shown off at various events prior to its release, Nintendo claimed that they would continue to support the GBA and DS would be a “third pillar” in their family of systems. Support for the handheld halfheartedly continued for maybe 6 months to a year then the GBA was pretty much assimilated into the DS.

Everyone seems to believe that the same thing will happen to the 3DS when the Switch is released.

It’s not that simple.

There are a bunch of things to factor in when understanding why the GBA went the wayside to the DS and they don’t really apply to the current situation.

Probably the biggest reason the Game Boy line was discontinued was that the DS could do everything the GBA could and more (and better). It really didn't help that you could also play Game Boy games on the DS as well. Essentially, the DS wasn't missing anything the GBA had in it.

This is not the case with the Switch.

The Switch isn’t Backwards compatible with anything including the 3DS but more importantly, the Switch couldn't play 3DS games even if it wanted to. It’s only got 1 screen.

I was trying to explain this to a coworker recently and their argument was you could take the Switch out of the dock and use the touch screen while the top screen could be on the TV.

“No… That’s not how that works”.

Games like Splatoon are getting sequels rather than remasters specifically due to hardware incompatibility.

Another thing keeping the 3DS around is that it’s actually doing very well at the moment.

According to Reggie, sales for the 3DS and its games have been higher in the last 3 months than they have been in any 3 month period for the last 2 years. With Pokemon Sun & Moon having launched in that 3 month window that’s not a surprise but still good to see.

It remains a fact, people are still buying 3DS’s.

Which brings me to another point, the 3DS is affordable.

I’ve already pre-ordered my Switch (of course I did) and along with a copy of the new Zelda game, I’m spending over half a grand! As garbage as the Canadian dollar currently is, that’s still a substantial investment.

You can find an original 3DS for less than $100. I don’t see the Switch getting a price drop for quite a while, if at all, so as long as people are still buying hardware, it’ll keep selling.

However, I think the most important reason the 3DS will continue to exist is that even looking beyond the hardware incompatibility, the Switch is not supposed to compete with the 3DS.

Despite what people want to believe, the Switch is not a handheld console. It’s a home console that has the ability to be portable. At face value is sounds like arguing semantics but the difference is in the mindset and that becomes very apparent when you look at the battery life.

The Switch’s battery is set to last between 2.5–6 hours depending on how taxing the game is on the hardware. It’s safe to assume most of the major games are gonna run the battery out closer to lower end of that lifespan as Zelda has been confirmed at around 3 hours in handheld mode. Now considering the hardware in the console, that’s actually alright. It’s not great, but not terrible either.

Does anyone remember when we found out the battery life of the original 3DS? About 5–8 hours with 3D off and the way people reacted you would have thought it was the literal end of the world.

The Switch is not meant to be the new handheld, it’s meant to give the home console space more freedom.

The 3DS has a fairly decent amount of games that are coming out this year still and E3 is not that far off.

I suppose Nintendo could be full of crap and not have any 3DS games shown off there and that would be a more clear indicator on how they care about that system. But if you honestly think about it, it doesn't make a lot of sense to pull support from a system that’s still selling well and to completely double down on the Switch when it still has such a mixed reaction.

I’ll absolutely agree that the New 3DS is most likely the last iteration of Nintendo’s dedicated handhelds. However I think unless something dramatically changes within the market, I’d say we’ve got at least another 3–4 years of 3DS.