Nintendo HDS 2016 or 2017?

[zorg1000]

the_dengle said:

teigaga said:

the_dengle said:

2016 would be a terrible move.

Why so?

Terrible is a strong word..

Waiting til your system is literally not selling is quite a bad move and 3DS is down YOY everywhere I believe and software is drying up, theres no reason why the in 2 years time it will still be selling like hotcakes. Introduce a successor a few years into its decline seems the smarter move, as opposed to releasing it after the system is dead.

Because as others have pointed out it's very similar to what they did with the DSi XL --> 3DS, and that was a mistake. 3DS successor needs some breathing room. Otherwise all the air will have been sucked up by the New 3DS.

I dont think New 3DS is gonna be a huge seller, ya it will have a strong launch but its primary purpose in my opinion is to slow down the decline rather than cause a significant boost. 3DS is on track to sell like 10 million this year, next year will probably around 8 million and 2016 would be like 5-6 million, 2017 would be like 3 million.

Rather than wait for 3DS to completely die, they need to release it while the system still is selling at least decently. They don't have to announce it so far in advance like Nintendo usually does for new hardware. They could give New 3DS the spotlight for all of 2015 then announce the next-gen hardware in Jan/Feb of 2016 then release it in late Spring/early Summer giving them about 5-6 months between reveal and launch.