The 2DS was a response to the 3DS struggling in the West. It was designed to be a low-price Pokemon machine for NA and Europe and it absolutely served that purpose.

Immediate response to the Switch has been much warmer than to the 3DS in the West. I can't predict the future but I don't yet see the need to be discussing a new model so soon.

Also the original 3DS hardware was kinda crappy and it needed a redesign. The Switch is pretty solid by comparison.

thank you for liking it

Back in January, a couple of weeks after the Switch’s low point (That janky January conference), I said the switch would sell 80M Lifetime.

This is assuming they discontinue the 3DS, Vita, and Wii U, and developers from all 3 platforms move over to the Nintendo Switch.

The Wii U has already ended, and I think the Vita has to be close to ending production. The last piece is when will Nintendo finish the 3DS. I think it will be before 2019.

Once that happens the Switch is the de facto handheld console, which, historically, has always done very well for Nintendo.

The sweet creme filling is that they have successfully raised the price ceiling of handheld games to $60. This is a great opportunity for larger games to expand the handheld market (such as Breath of the Wild).

And, the Switch is very capable hardware with very good middleware support.

Plus, being portable and always multiplayer ready with 2 joycon makes this system the most social gaming system yet. It is so so easy to jump in and start playing with friends without any additional cost, hardware, or preparation. Natural viral marketing at its finest.

Oh and icing on the cake, it is also a Home Console. :P

If Nintendo hits a home run at e3 I will revise my prediction to 100M Lifetime.

"Evergreen fads" has to be a first.

A big prediction

I think it has the potential, though I'm still doubtful

It's a combination of power, age and cost effectiveness. Devices still sporting a Tegra X1 chip in 2024? That's not going to happen, the chip won't even be manufactured anymore, it'll have been replaced several times over.

A Switch successor or a more powerful switch will be on the market by the end of 2021.

Most fads do last for a fairly lengthy period, but then fall off the face of the earth .... see: from the 90s, the Macarena, Backstreet Boys, or any boy/girl band. 

Wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo switches (no pun intended) to the Tegra X2 in the next 18 months sometime. Unless they have some locked in deal for the X1 at 20nm, there's no point in staying with it, it might actually cost them more money to keep using that outdated 20nm line that no one else is using. 

Tegra X2 would immediately improve battery life, whether Nintendo would allow developers to tap into it's broader power though is a question mark. 

You know, I actually felt like doing some research on this.

First of all, the inclusion of Game and Watch is misleading and partially wrong. Due to the nature of the platform, hardware sales are more accurately measured as software sales. This is because each unit sold is only one, maybe two or three, games. To play other games, another unit must be purchased.

Second, the Gameboy Color and Gameboy sales figures are combined at 118m, so the inclusion of a separate GBC sales figure is bogus, at best. The fifth gen Nintendo handheld was the Virtual Boy, at 0.77m units.

This means Nintendo has one generation without a proper handheld; the NES (3rd Gen). 

So the proper numbers are as follows:

3rd Gen - 61.91m

4th Gen - 167.79m (Up, though previous generation lacked a handheld)

5th Gen - 33.70m (Down)

6th Gen - 103.25m (Up)

7th Gen - 256.06m (Up)

8th Gen - 78.45m (Down)

If you take 3rd Gen out for lacking a complimentary handheld, you can see that the spacing of platforms has allowed Nintendo do just as many ups as downs. However, if you look at handheld and console separately, you get this:

NES - 61.91

SNES - 49.10 (Down)

N64 - 32.93 (Down)

GCN - 21.74 (Down)

Wii - 101.18 (Up)

Wii U - 13.90 (Down)

GB+All Variations - 118.69 

VB - 0.77 (Down)

GBA+All Variations - 81.51 (Up)

NDS+All Variations - 154.88 (Up)

3DS+All Variations - 64.55 (Down)

While handhelds have been all over (with one dreadful failure), home consoles have had a stay downward trend with a single anomolous inclusion of the Wii (Nintendo's only home console to break 100m).