With E3 fast approaching, the internet is a buzz of what new games will be announced. What it seems most fans do not care about is the fate of Nintendo’s handheld system, the Nintendo 3DS. The fans that do care, only seem to feel a sense of scarcity. They believe that if Nintendo keeps making games for the 3DS, it might take away precious man power away from Switch games that could use more attention. I am not so sure that the the system deserves all the hate it is getting for this.

Nintendo Likes Money

On April 26, Tatsumi Kimishima of Nintendo announced that “[they] believe it is important to leverage the rich library of Nintendo 3DS series titles to drive sales with existing Nintendo 3DS owners as well as with consumers who recently purchased the Nintendo 3DS hardware, and are investigating strategies for doing so.”

“In addition to the titles currently on sale, [they] have announced the coming release of the titles shown here. [They] are even preparing new software for release in 2019 and beyond.”

The above quote should leave no room for misunderstanding. Nintendo will continue to support the system as long as it makes them money. It also does not hurt that more people have multiple 3DS’s under one roof. One could describe the Nintendo Switch as relatively new. It only came out a little over one year ago. From a business standpoint, it makes sense to continue supporting the old handheld system until more people buy a Switch.

The Way You See The 3DS VS. The Way Nintendo Sees The 3DS

We know the answer to why Nintendo decided to keep on supporting the 3DS, but why do fans care? As mentioned earlier, the talk of the internet includes the scarcity mindset. When developers such as Nintendo and their third-party supporters take the time to make 3DS games, they cannot make similar games for the Switch. This, personally, seems like a farfetched idea. The truth seems that developers put their resources where they believe the most profit will occur.

As portable as the Switch may seem, it still feels bigger than holding even a 3DSXL in your hands. Parents buy multiple 3DS’s for their many children. It doesn’t seem that much of a stretch to figure that Nintendo sees the two systems as having different audiences. Perhaps child friendly games such as Detective Pikachu belong on the child-centered system, the 3DS.

But don’t get up in arms because I assumed that Nintendo thinks of the 3DS as a ‘kiddy’ system. I recently purchased a 2DS of my own. I own a library of old DS games with no Nintendo DS to play them on. And as I recently reported on this website, the Switch does not appear to have much in the way of backward compatibility coming in its future. The 3DS has one thing that the Switch does not; a strong sense of backwards compatibility.

Where The Real Problem Lies

If anything keeps games from getting created or included onto the Switch, it doesn’t include attention elsewhere. I believe that one can blame the lateness of third-party games on the format of the Nintendo Switch’s games. Taking the Nintendo Switch back to the cartridge with such limited 32 GB storage may have doomed fans. The fans will forever wait for equal port treatment as the PS4 and Xbox One, but they will never get it.

New video games for the Nintendo 3DS will get released in 2019, 2020, and who knows how much longer. Instead of complaining that the 3DS causes games to not get released on the Switch, maybe look closer. The Switch does not contain the powerful hardware of the PS4 or the Xbox One. I believe that having too many choices to choose from, is a great problem to have.

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