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seiya19 on 27 March 2014
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Soundwave said:
seiya19 said:
Fusioncode said:
The GBA had a 3 year lifecycle

No, it didn't. It was released in 2001 and discontinued between 2006-2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_boy_advance

And Nintendo was still publishing games in 2006, like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Drill Dozer, and Mother 3. They even published Final Fantasy VI Advance for the West in 2007.

And there's no reason why Nintendo can't continue making the odd 3DS game through 2016/2017/even 2018 if they want to, even if they release another portable in say 2015. 

No, of course not. In fact, they also released Pokémon Black/White 2 and Conquest for DS in 2012, more than a year after 3DS release. The lifecycle of a platform is indeed not directly tied to the release of its successor. Still, it does have an obvious effect on its market and support, and I don't see any reason not to give 3DS at least 5 years without it. An announcement in E3 2015 and release in February 2016 would be exactly that, and that would be the earliest I would expect it to come (which would be sooner than DS to 3DS). And if they end up going for a "dual" platform as some speculate, I definitely see it being at least a year later than that.

Also, people seem to forget that DS was originally meant to be a "third pillar" in Nintendo's hardware lineup, not a successor to GBA, so that's something to take into account here...