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Valdath on 25 September 2017
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Carl2291 said:
Kyuu said:
If Switch isn't a successor to the 3DS, then why on earth is it generally assumed that it will be the new home for mainline Pokemon, Monster Hunter, Animal Crossing, Dragon Quest, etc? Do we expect the 3DS to continue selling without real system sellers?

Nintendo made similar claims with the GBA and DS, that the latter is a third pillar not intended to replace the former, and we all know how that ended, so I'm not sure why we're supposed to take their words at face value. It's premature to say what Switch exactly represents.

Obviously, the 3DS is still fairly important to Nintendo when games like DQXI, Samus Returns and US/UM are being made left and right, but if that continues to be the case for the coming years (which I don't think it will), then we might want to readjust our expectations about how well the Switch does in Japan. As long as the DS-family support continues, Switch's potential and appeal won't reach its maximum potential.

The only one of the games you mentioned that has a traditional home on handheld platforms right now is Pokémon. MonHun is arguable, but with Animal Crossing and Dragon Quest all have seen mainline entries and continued to see great success on both home console and handheld platforms. I don't think it's wrong to say that Nintendo's traditional handheld developers (and 3rd parties too) will be working on games for both 3DS and Switch, but using the assumption that those titles will be moving from 3DS to Switch (especially when the likes of MH, AC and DQ are also traditionally released on homeconsoles) as your reasoning is poor reasoning.

That said, I see the smartphone to be Nintendo's own "successor" to the 3DS if they decide to not follow it up with a traditional gaming platform. It's been proven that Nintendo IP can perform well on mobile and the smartphone is the next logical step despite the lack of buttons and true directional controls. The 3DS will remain for as long as it can while being fed on scraps after 17/18, with Nintendo shifting full scale development towards Switch and creating new titles for iOS/Android.

Smartphone already has Pokémon, Mario and Fire Emblem. Animal Crossing is currently being developed and there's a Zelda game planned too.

I can see Atlus still making 3DS games up tunil 2019 tbh, they still have to remake Etrian Odyssey 3, Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 has no western localization (if it's comfirmed it will probably be late 2018) and they could always port a few more SMT PS2 games into the 3DS for easy profit.