Will the Switch Mark the End of the 3DS?

With the announcement of the Nintendo Switch and all the hype surrounding it, many gamers have been asking: Is the Switch going to be the end of the 3DS?

Nintendo has recently announced the Switch and has marketed it as the best of both worlds, with gamers being able to play with the Switch on a television or being able to take it on the go and play it on the tablet. 

Clearly the notion of being able to switch from console to handheld is an innovative idea, but this poses an issue: what about the 3DS? For the longest time Nintendo has ruled the handheld market, while struggling to make a place in the home console market. Though the Wii U is a great console with a ton of great games, it didn’t have the staying power that the Wii or other current generation consoles do.

So now Nintendo is encroaching upon its own territory in the handheld market with the Switch. Does this mean they will abandon the 3DS altogether?

I would say probably not.

Though the 3DS may not have seen as much publicity and popularity in the recent years, the handheld is doing fine. Handheld systems are more popular in places like Japan where people are in much closer proximity to each other, compared to the U.S. where home consoles (where people can gather up from far places) seem to be the king. 

So developers — especially in Asian regions — probably aren’t going to stop creating handheld games. And as long as there are handheld games, there will be a demand for handheld systems like the 3DS.

The Switch is marketed as the best of both worlds, but the main focus of the console seems to be the idea that you can take a home console game on the go. The handheld game market and the home console game markets are two different beasts. Home console games usually aim for longer experiences and higher fidelity graphics. Though some handheld titles will have long experiences, they’re usually made so that you can pick them up and put them down.

The gist of it is that both markets can overlap. but they aren’t the exact same. So the 3DS still has a place.

Even if the Switch is a handheld and a home console, I don’t think that 3DS fans have anything to worry about.