It's not like 3DS has had a short lifespan. It's on the verge of its 6th birthday.

the original 3DS & XL have been discontinued for quite some time now, they represent less than 10% of shipments in FY2015 and less than 2% so far in FY2016.

well there you go. In terms of handhelds Nintendo knows what's up. If only they could have done something similar with the Wii U

But I'm talking ps2 levels of lifespan

The PS2 is a freak occurence, the highest selling console of all time, not the norm. By industry standards 6 years is a nice long run.

Not really, of the existing Nintendo published titles releasing for 3DS this year, most of them are smaller, outsourced titles that were being worked on for awhile and before these studios had access to Switch dev kits.

You would have a point if these Nintendo published games started development in the last few months but thats likely not the case. Yoshi & Poochy probably got started shortly after the original Wii U version released so 2nd half of 2015, Fire Emblem Echoes probably got started right after Fates released so 2nd half of 2015, etc.

Here is the current Nintendo published 3DS lineup

Yoshi & Poochy's Woolly World-January

Mario Sports Superstars-March

Fire Emblem Echoes-April

Ever Oasis-TBA

Fire Emblem Warriors-Fall (also on Switch and just New 3DS)

Pikmin-TBA

None of these games suggest Nintendo is diverting significant resources away from Switch since they are primarily small, outsourced titles.

Its same to assume that Nintendo's internal teams have moved on to Switch development. Breath of the Wild, 1-2 Switch, Mario Kart Deluxe, ARMS, Splatoon 2, Xenoblade 2, Mario Odessey are all by internal teams & subsidiaries.

I'd still say all those resources add up. And Fire Emblem Warriors being multiplat means one less exclusive for Switch.

Do you really think a small studio like Good-Feel releasing a port of their 2015 title really takes away resources from Switch? Or that Switch would have another major release this year if the resources from the mediocre looking Pikmin game were used elsewhere?

Grezzo is a small studio and has never made a large scale HD game, they have only worked on small digital titles, Zelda remakes, and a low budget RPG. Them working on 3DS has almost no impact on Switch and their new game, Ever Oasis will likely only sell a few 100k. If they were working on Switch the game would either be years away or an insignificant eShop title.

Honestly none of those games are system sellers and are basically there to appeal to current 3DS owners who arent going to buy Switch right away regardless of its support.

Can you honestly say any of those titles are going to cause people to reconsider purchasing a Switch?

Alone, none of them may be particularly significant, but cumulatively?

Also keep in mind we're not just talking about the current situation, but the idea of 3DS being supported through to 2020.

Cumulatively its still pretty insignificant, the combined resources of these games likely doesnt add up to a single major release, I cant imagine any of these titles having more than a few million dollar development budget.

Besides, these are all seperate developers and rather small so the options were likely either release a small 3DS title or work on Switch titles that wouldn't release for a few years and in certain cases they are doing both.

For example, we know Intelligent Systems is working on FE Echoes & FE Switch simultaneously. They already have the engine/assets from Awakening/Fates so Echoes likely isn't taking up alot of time/money and is a way for the studio to make some money while working on a bigger project that is still 1.5-2 years away.

Grezzo is a small studio but we know they can work on a few projects at once. In 2015 they released Legend of Legacy, Majora's Mask 3D & assisted on Triforce Heroes. Its highly possible that are working on Ever Oasis for 3DS while also working on a Switch title to be released in 2018/2019.

Good-Feel, another small studio, in the last decade has released only 3 sizeable retail titles (Wario Land/Epic Yarn/Woolly World), a few tiny educational games on DS, a handful of Wii Play/Streetpass minigames and helped out with Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Yoshi & Poochy is just a port with a few extra features, probably not taking up a huge amount of resources and highly probable that they are working on a Switch title to be released in 2018/2019.

Camelot, another small studio, in the last 20 years they have pretty much been a golf/tennis team with the occasional small RPG. Since 1997 they have released 13 golf/tennis games and 3 Golden Sun titles. In more recent tiles they have been able to release a game roughly every 1.5-2 years, Mario Tennis 3DS-May 2012, Mario Golf 3DS-May 2014, Mario Tennis Wii U-Nov 2015, Mario Superstars (just Golf/Tennis portion)-March 2017. Based on that i would say its safe to assume they will have a Mario Golf/Tennis title for Switch in late 2018/2019.

As for FE Warriors, ya sure its taking away an exclusive from Switch but considering how well the Wii U version of Hyrule Warriors sold compared to the 3DS version, i would say its safe to assume the vast majority of people will ignore the New 3DS version of FE Warriors. Its likely on N3DS just to squeeze out an extra few 100k in sales and recoup the costs of creating the build for HW Legends.

Im also pretty sure you said Pikmin 3DS looked like garbage and shouldnt cost more than $10-15 or something along those lines. Now you're saying its existence is hurting Switch........seems like quite the contradiction.

But yes I agree supporting 3DS until 2020 would be stupid. I think it will recieve decent support from small outsourced titles, ports and localizations for the next year or so then all support will be on Switch.