etking said:
Switch is not the 3DS sucessor (but the 3DS sucessor will likely play Switch games), this was stated by Nintendo multiple times. It is also too big to apeal to 3DS / 3DSXL customers and cannot be couted as mobile. A smaller and much longer lasting unit will releaee for sure. |
Nintendo says a lot of things, DS was not the successor to GBA either. Until it sold well, and then magically it's "what's a Game Boy? We never heard of it".
We know how this is going to go.
The only way Switch is not the 3DS successor is if it sells poorly, becuase Nintendo wants to give themselves that bail-out parachute.
Even with kids though I'd bet good money if you lined up 10 kids from *today* (not 2002) and showed them the Switch form factor versus a 3DS ... they'd majority choose the Switch. Kids love the larger screen form factor. When I have my little cousins over they all fight over the iPad ... the loser gets the 3DS.
The last three fiscal year's of the 3DS have seen some of the lowest handheld shipments from Nintendo over the last 20+ years. That form factor was dying out. The last time Nintendo had sub 10-million in handheld shipments before 3DS in a year was FY Ending March 1997 ... this is basically right when Pokemon was invented in Japan.
But the 3DS? Has had now three straight fiscal years of well below 10 million. Switch actually has a task of reinvigorating the portable market, because 3DS actually has not been selling that great for a while. It got an OK boost from Pokemon Go, but these boosts are still low historically for what Nintendo usually sells.
