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[commish]

Due to a complete market shift from mobile. Even the iPad has been having decreased sales due to people only wanting to carry a singular device [phone].

Ipad sales are down because ipads last for years and there's no reason to upgrade. Pretty much everyone who wants a tablet has one, and until there's a compelling reason to upgrade, most never will.

Anyway, Nintendo should focus on mobile + switch. Best for its future.

 

[omgwtfbentime]

After seeing sales of fire emblem heroes, I think if they can reach 3DS-like sales with switch (50 million at least), further monetize those consumers (higher attach rate, DLC, subscriptions, etc), and get more people into the ecosystem with heavily profitable F2P mobile stuff, Nintendo will do great. PS4 isn't exactly lighting Japan on fire (seems on track to sell worse than ps3 when it's all said and done) so I think Japan in particular is ripe for Nintendo to dominate via mobile and console if Sony doesn't plan on making a vita successor for the Japanese market.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Anyway, Nintendo should focus on mobile + switch. Best for its future.

yeeeeep

there's all sorts of reasons why that's the most sensible route for Nintendo to take, beyond mobile platforms being competition to Nintendo's handheld products.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Some of you need to realize Nintendo, or any other first party, maintaining 2 separate systems is no longer feasible. Handheld games are no longer relatively small, low cost, low dev time affairs anymore. Developing for them actively takes away development from the "console". I don't see why this would change in the future. Despite dev tools becoming easier to use and more powerful, and middleware being more widely adopted, dev times haven't significantly decreased.

Yeah and I think mobile is the primary reason for that honestly. Which is why it's kind of interesting they went the portable route and are marketing it as a home console.

It's working for them, for now, but I sort of think they are clinging to the Japanese market where portable is more successful, but is ultimately kind of irrelevant vs the US and EU long term, and even China. I'm not sure what the Chinese trends will be as far as hardware going forward, but as it stands its primarily a PC and mobile market.

I think they may eventually realize it's smarter to go the Sony route long term and focus on a home console as mobile will just continue to evaporate the portable market. Hell mobile tech will eventually start to corrode home consoles too when the gpus will actually start to surpass the switch, and then people will just use a Bluetooth pad and stream 4k full featured AAA to their TVs. This won't be for another 10-20 years when fiber and extremely fast wifi is commonplace, but it will happen eventually. Literally why buy a box when my phone does everything.

So yeah there are sort of trends they may or may not focus on for given periods of time. It might be smart to do a home console gen or 2, or it might not. Focusing on mobile and switch may be the smartest course as if mobile starts to kill home console sales they will have an edge with developing for mobile tech.

Sony and MS are focusing on the home console front and it's working for now, but that may start to backfire. It's also possible Nintendo not having a more powerful home console could backfire depending on if and how much mobile cannibalizes future switch iterations vs if they focused on a home console for a bit like Sony and MS are doing. Either way switch is working out well for them right now, outside of supply shortages (which wouldn't be happening if switch was a home console with an hdd, but it's hard to say if that would sell as well as switch right now).

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I don't understand how this is news, seems obvious :/

 

[tebunker]

Guys it make not be with this iteration of the Switch but definitely with future iterations/systems this is the direction. Hopefully Nintendo has/is setting up the platform for future BC much like Xbox so you can always have a readily available library.

I honestly think we can expect some mid life revisions and then in 4-5 years get the next product in the family. As the technology becomes cheaper and more readily available it will only be easier for Nintendo to have a good portable system that can also double as a home box and vice versa.

 

[schuelma]

I don't understand how this is news, seems obvious :/

Just for a bit of explanation- I agree this has been obvious since day 1- but if you look at discussion on this topic on gaf, there has been a surprising amount of posters taking Nintendo at their literal word and expecting a 3DS successor. So I thought this article was thread worthy, both for the content and the discussion on replacing revenue, etc.

 

[MetatronM]

The Game Boy Advance saw new releases into Feb 2008, a little over three years after the release of the DS.

The NES saw new releases all the way through the end of 1994, a little over three years after the release of the SNES.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

The bottom line is that the Switch is meant as a Wii U replacement. The Wii U can no longer be purchased at retail and stock of games is dwindling quickly.

The 3DS will live out the rest of its "life", for 18 to 36 months, and then will eventually no longer be supported, but I don't think the Switch is intended to replace it as it is with the Wii U.

 

[RedShift]

If gamefreak are working on a mainline Pokemon game for the switch it's the successor to the 3ds, end of.

 

[Ushojax]

Been obvious since before the Switch was even announced, but people will still dispute this.

How could anyone dispute it? Pokemon and Fire Emblem have moved to Switch. We are just seeing a focus on console-like software for Switch because the 3DS still has a few outsourced games in the pipeline.

The bottom line is that the Switch is meant as a Wii U replacement. The Wii U can no longer be purchased at retail and stock of games is dwindling quickly.

The 3DS will live out the rest of its "life", for 18 to 36 months, and then will eventually no longer be supported, but I don't think the Switch is intended to replace it as it is with the Wii U.

36 months? Who exactly is going to be making games for it for the next 3 years? Nintendo do no have any internal development teams working on 3DS games. Switch is the future.

 

[perfectchaos007]

A new DS model comes out next week though. Nintendo is still committed to the DS....for now

 

[JustSomeone]

It is a replacement for the wiiu for sure, but 3DS? lol

 

[Vital Tundra]

It is a replacement for the wiiu for sure, but 3DS? lol

Are you suggesting we are getting something else to replace the 3DS?

 

[UnemployedVillain]

It is a replacement for the wiiu for sure, but 3DS? lol

How do you people like you still exist? It's getting Pokemon, it's getting Fire Embem, none of the 3DS games still being released from Nintendo are even being developed in-house, aside from some people in directing/consulting roles. FFS

 

[schuelma]

It is a replacement for the wiiu for sure, but 3DS? lol

thanks for helping to justify me making the thread!

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

36 months? Who exactly is going to be making games for it for the next 3 years? Nintendo do no have any internal development teams working on 3DS games. Switch is the future.

I dunno, I'm not a time traveler.

 

[Chauzu]

Been obvious since before the Switch was even announced, but people will still dispute this.

It is a replacement for the wiiu for sure, but 3DS? lol

.

 

[LotusHD]

It is a replacement for the wiiu for sure, but 3DS? lol

Living in different realities at this point brehs

 

[Dre3001]

This is obvious news that the Switch is replacing both the 3DS and WiiU.

If anything I see the distinction between portable and home console disappearing fairly soon. Regardless of the series or property, everything will simply just be referred to games and not have any type of label attached to them whether that be home console or portable.

 

[Graphics Horse]

Is it even right to call 3DS family a one gadget strategy?

I think everyone hopes for a single software platform strategy, you'd have to make an extremely quirky device to justify not doing that at this point, but nobody should be surprised if they announce further devices

 

[Oregano]

Nah I think Nintendo is going to release a 3DS successor at some point.

I'm thinking it will still be cart based, maybe finally go from a resistive screen to capacitive, have a proper second analog stick instead of the c-stick, maybe proper shoulder buttons. As for power considering the 3DS handled Wii ports(MH Tri, DKCR, Xenoblade) maybe they'll aim around Wii U levels....

It's really interesting to imagine what such a device would look like...

 

[ZOONAMI]

It is a replacement for the wiiu for sure, but 3DS? lol

It's kind of funny the different opinions.

It's pretty clearly more of a portable than a home console to a lot of people, and the other way around to a lot of people.

The Wii U was an abject sales failure, and the 3ds is still selling. Just because Nintendo pulled the Wii U doesn't necessarily mean the switch isn't designed to be the longer term 3ds successor. It really is a successor to both for the time being but I don't think it precludes Nintendo from eventually releasing another dedicated home console. As I've said, they may see it as necessary to eventually do another dedicated home console to sell more units in the west at some point in the future. The dock honestly does seem like a hastily put together add on as a stop gap home console solution. It's a cheap piece of plastic that really doesn't do much other than an hdmi out with a slight spec bump because of not needing to worry about battery life.

Anyway, I'd be pretty surprised if there wasnt a dedicated home console prototype in development that got canned for the time being, or is still in development and we haven't heard about it yet.

 

[Scum]

Guys, it's AMD.

😂😂

 

[Neoxon]

It is a replacement for the wiiu for sure, but 3DS? lol

Pokémon & Fire Emblem are jumping ship to the Switch after this year. That should make it pretty clear that the Switch is also a 3DS successor.

 

[kulapik]

For a moment I thought this was a bump of an old thread

I mean, no shit? Even though a successor console has released, there can still be games for the previous console, and the 3DS has a big install base, why not get games out for people that don't have a Switch yet or can't get one?

 

[13ruce]

They will probably go for 1 dedicated nintendo hardware device support + Mobile after 3DS is done.

So Switch and Mobile.
They have been very succesfull so far on Mobile except maybe Mario run lol but that still made millions.

 

[giant_frying_pan]

Bloomberg are also projecting Donald Trump as the next President of the United States.

 

[Josh5890]

The NES saw new releases all the way through the end of 1994, a little over three years after the release of the SNES.

The Wii is getting one more game released this year.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

I don't see the 3DS going away until Nintendo can get the Switch down to $199/$149.

 

[sam12]

No shit

 

[sixteen-bit]

Pillars collapsing.

 

[sora87]

As it should be.

 

[ZOONAMI]

I don't see the 3DS going away until Nintendo can get the Switch down to $199/$149.

Yep, they will keep making and selling 3ds at the lower entry point until switch can hit that entry point.

And I think they may make another home console to compete with ps5 and xb2 for 2020 or so when switch is at that $199 price point. Or they will just come out with an upgraded switch v2 around that time.

 

[Okami Haundo]

Nah I think Nintendo is going to release a 3DS successor at some point.

I'm thinking it will still be cart based, maybe finally go from a resistive screen to capacitive, have a proper second analog stick instead of the c-stick, maybe proper shoulder buttons. As for power considering the 3DS handled Wii ports(MH Tri, DKCR, Xenoblade) maybe they'll aim around Wii U levels....

It's really interesting to imagine what such a device would look like...

At that point they might as well just make the Switch's equivalent of the 2DS... A handheld that plays Switch games in portable mode only and can't scale up for TV play. Honestly, I would be really surprised if they don't do this in 2-3 years.

Edit: Didn't catch the potential sarcasm here. But I still believe what I said above.

 

[ZOONAMI]

At that point they might as well just make the Switch's equivalent of the 2DS... A handheld that plays Switch games in portable mode only and can't scale up for TV play. Honestly, I would be really surprised if they don't do this in 2-3 years.

Pretty sure this is exactly what's going to happen. Its already a portable system so I don't see why people think there will be some other portable successor.

 

[Krev]

Yep, they will keep making and selling 3ds at the lower entry point until switch can hit that entry point.

And I think they may make another home console to compete with ps5 and xb2 for 2020 or so when switch is at that $199 price point. Or they will just come out with an upgraded switch v2 around that time.

Switch isn't going to be replaced that quickly. There's no need. It will continue to see mid-gen successors to take advantage of mobile tech narrowing the gap with consoles.

 

[Guevara]

If that's where they are going, I just hope they get there quickly.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Nintendo makes dumb decisions, but they wouldn't be so dump to drop the hybrid aspect in three years.

They wouldn't drop the switch at all, and in fact may even have an upgraded switch by that time but still at a lower price point. I'm just saying it isn't out of the realm of possibility for them to make another home console.

The Wii U was such a failure they may essentially be waiting out the gen to see if they want to do another dedicated home console or not, with switch as the portable successor and home console stop gap.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Pretty sure this is exactly what's going to happen. Its already a portable system so I don't see why people think there will be some other portable successor.

Nah, I think the opposite is more likely: that Nintendo puts out a minuscule and incredibly cheap little Switch TV in a couple of years after Switch has a respectable library.

Drop the screen, the detachable controllers, the battery, and what are you left with?
Like four square inches worth of inexpensive tech.

A Switch that simply 'can't scale up for TV play' wouldn't cost much less than the current Switch (although built in 'cons would help) because it'd still be powered by all the same stuff... and that device would do more to subvert Switch's marketing and premise than a Switch TV would, I think.

 

[Dre3001]

Yep, they will keep making and selling 3ds at the lower entry point until switch can hit that entry point.

And I think they may make another home console to compete with ps5 and xb2 for 2020 or so when switch is at that $199 price point. Or they will just come out with an upgraded switch v2 around that time.

I really think that we are closer to Sony and MS releasing a hybrid device that is Switch-like before another home console. With VR being pushed by Sony and MS moving further along with Surface products and trying to push windows into a seamless OS across all of their devices. I think companies will shift away from a dedicated home console.

With mobile becoming as big as it has I think it will definitely impact how the next systems are approached.

 

[clevbrowns94]

They hedged on this in case it wasn't successful. Now that it's a hit, there will not be a 3DS replacement. They could still a cheaper version without a dock down the road though.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Switch isn't going to be replaced that quickly. There's no need. It will continue to see mid-gen successors to take advantage of mobile tech narrowing the gap with consoles.

Well yeah by switch v2 I mean an upgrade iteration fully bc, and switch v1 forward compatible. Not a full blown x10 spec bump you see more with a full gen.

 

[Graphics Horse]

At that point they might as well just make the Switch's equivalent of the 2DS... A handheld that plays Switch games in portable mode only and can't scale up for TV play. Honestly, I would be really surprised if they don't do this in 2-3 years.

I think it could be as soon as next year.
I keep getting influenced by Nintendo's apparent low expectations for the Switch device, they definitely have to have had something else up their sleeves.

 

[OCD Guy]

Been obvious since before the Switch was even announced, but people will still dispute this.

I thought the same, but why the fuck they released a new 2DS XL, honestly was gutted to see that.

The quicker the kill everything off the better.

 

[Oregano]

Not having detachable Joycons with their own batteries would probably cut a decent chunk off the price of a Switch and the hypothetical model that did that would still be able to pair with Joycons.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Some of you are crazy. They're not releasing a portable only Switch. They're not releasing a console only Switch. Get over it

 

[spookyfish]

Nintendo will make up for lost hardware sales of a dedicated handheld line by continuing to sell me different colored joycons

Famicon joycons when??

I gotta catch em all, too. First amiibo; now joycons. Dammit, Nintendo!

 

[SuperOrez]

Is this one of this Gaf>Internet>Gaf things?

 

[OCD Guy]

Some of you are crazy. They're not releasing a portable only Switch. They're not releasing a console only Switch. Get over it

Yeah I've never understood that logic. Either one of those suggestions totally kills the point of the Switch and being able to "switch" between portable and console.