Nintendo envisions a successor 3DS News and opinions

Nintendo's continued support for the 3DS is mainly due to the fact that it keeps selling. The new president of the company therefore confirmed that he was considering a successor to sell alongside Switch.

When Nintendo launched the Switch and sales were much better than we expected, we thought the 3DS was alive. Sales would surely decrease quickly for the seven-year-old handheld now a portable console was available, right? Well, they did not do it, and Nintendo is considering a new handheld to replace it.

The confirmation of this comes from Shuntaro Furukawa, the new president of Nintendo. Furukawa has been a Nintendo employee since 1994, starting as an accountant before moving to global marketing, then working as a director at The Pokemon Company and a participant in the development of Switch . He took the role of president last month.

As reported by Nintendo Everything, Furukawa explained that "the 3DS has some advantages over the Switch such as ease of purchase and others" and that Nintendo "is considering various possibilities" for a successor. The 3DS is certainly cheaper than the Switch, which makes it more attractive for budget games or for parents with young children. It's also much easier to slip into a pocket and have the battery life that the owners can only dream of. In terms of sales, the 3DS has exceeded 72 million units in April and new games are planned for 2019.

Although there is clearly no commitment yet from Nintendo, it will be interesting to see what the company creates replace the 3DS. I would bet money by retaining backward compatibility with the 3DS and keeping the two-screen format to differentiate it from the Switch. The internals and postings are well behind a major update, though. Could we have some 720p screens? And what will Nintendo call this new handheld?

For now, the 3DS is still an interesting purchase in its latest form, the new Nintendo 2DS XL. Or for the youngest, the indestructible 2DS is ideal. With more than 1,200 games launched, just about every game taste is taken into account.