| Kerotan said:
Read over on gaf and their main Nintendo sales guy (Chris1964) has regularly explained how Nintendo's primary developers have moved focus to the Switch. Actually if you have an account post on the gaf thread and ask if the Switch is a 3DS successor or not. They'll explain very well to you why it is. For a console to get support when their new generation has arrived is nothing new. Sure look at ps2 and ps3. |
Hold on. Now I agree Switch is meant to eventually succeed the 3DS, but not for these reasons. Nintendo’s primary developers left the 3DS years ago to work on Wii U projects. That didn’t mean the Wii U was replacing the 3DS then and it isn’t evidence that the Switch is replacing the 3DS now. Even their first-party projects for the past several years have mostly been developed by third-party partners overseen by Nintendo. TriForce Heroes by Grezzo, Federation Force by Next Level, etc. Only Pokemon, Fire Emblem, and Kirby games seem to have kept their core teams on 3DS. Note that Pokemon and Kirby still have upcoming 3DS releases. So Nintendo may not have their main teams on the system any more, but they are still supporting it as they have for several years.
Sony may have a history of continuing to support their consoles with first-party development past their expiration date, but for the most part Nintendo does not. As far as I’m aware the notable exceptions would be the NES and the GameBoy lines. The GameCube was fully retired by the time the Wii launched (sans Twilight Princess), the Wii for the Wii U, the DS for the 3DS (sans Pokemon) and so on. Also since it’s just too difficult to resist I have to point out Sony barely supported the PSP and Vita with their “primary developers” at all, never mind after being replaced.
It’s unusual for the 3DS to continue to be supported as much as it has been after the release of its successor. Doubly so Nintendo seems committed to following through on their promise to support it well into next year. I would guess they will allow the 3DS to persist as long as it is profitable, as Sony did the PSP.
