Nintendo might have just quietly killed off the DS line

[Master Disaster]

Without a doubt the DS is one of the most popular hand held systems of all time, its been around almost 16 years in various forms and has sold over 150 million units over the years. Well now Nintendo of Japan have announced that production of new DS units has ceased and Nintendo of America have removed the DS from their website entirely.

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On the 3DS hardware section of the official Japanese Nintendo website, an announcement appeared today stating that the production of the Nintendo 3DS series has been discontinued. Meanwhile, the official U.S. Nintendo website no longer lists the 3DS in its hardware section and no mention of the 3DS line of products can be found. In fact, the nintendo.com/3ds URL redirects to nintendo.com. But unlike the Japanese website, there is no announcement of the handheld's discontinuation.

While it is a sudden move for sure its not exactly unexpected, the Switch has been selling like hotcakes so its no surprise Nintendo feel the need to focus on it, plus theres rumours of a 4K Switch coming next year.

Quote

These news come abruptly as Nintendo has not made any official statement regarding the discontinuation of the 3DS line. The company even held a mini Direct today but made no such statement. With the Wii U long discontinued and the 3DS following suit, Nintendo seems to fully focus on the Nintendo Switch. An upgraded model has even been rumored by multiple sources briefed on Nintendo's strategy for an early 2021 release.

Source - https://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendo-discontinues-3ds-production-in-japan.573880/

 

RIP the Nintendo DS. Personally I see this as a move to streamline their systems and I guess they'll now start marketing the Switch Lite as a DS replacement.

[AvMaverick]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Personally I see this as a move to streamline their systems and I guess they'll now start marketing the Switch Lite as a DS replacement.

That maybe their exact aim considering their Switch has had more publicity than maybe any other of their handhelds, and then software optimisation for games will also be better...

[jiyeon]

I still have my DS Lite from a decade ago, vivid memories of playing Mario Kart, Animal Crossing Wild World, and other smaller games on it, it was one of my favorite handheld consoles at the time.

I do now own a Nintendo Switch so the death of the DS isn't hitting me as hard since I'm still on the Nintendo train though.

[Shreyas1]

They were still making them? Who's buying a DS over a Switch (outside of collectors) now that the switch has a pretty decent library

[Suika]

Sweet dreams, my prince. I've owned way too many of you for a single individual.

[Monkey Dust]

You shall always live on in our hearts and our pockets, because the Switch is too big to fit. 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

3 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

 

They were still making them? Who's buying a DS over a Switch (outside of collectors) now that the switch has a pretty decent library

 

The new 3ds XL was retailing about $125 USD in my area. It would be a pretty potent system for that much.

[Nowak]

3 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

They were still making them? Who's buying a DS over a Switch (outside of collectors) now that the switch has a pretty decent library

3DS was cheaper than the Switch by almost $200 near the end of its life. Nintendo probably kept it alive for so long as a "budget" alternative to the Switch.

 

However, it seems they want to focus on the Switch entirely, rather than dividing manufacturing lines between the aging 3DS and the newer Switch/Lite.

[Kisai]

13 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

 

RIP the Nintendo DS. Personally I see this as a move to streamline their systems and I guess they'll now start marketing the Switch Lite as a DS replacement.

That's what they said they were going to do back at the start of the Switch era. They were going to consolidate their development tools so that (things like Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros ) aren't duplicated efforts.

 

Like, do we really need two consoles that serve the same market? No, not really. 

 

IMO, Nintendo should have done this earlier and made the Switch an upgrade path from the 3DS, but then people would have the expectation of running the 3DS software on it.

 

[Shreyas1]

2 hours ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

The new 3ds XL was retailing about $125 USD in my area. It would be a pretty potent system for that much.

 

2 hours ago, Nowak said:

3DS was cheaper than the Switch by almost $200 near the end of its life. Nintendo probably kept it alive for so long as a "budget" alternative to the Switch.

 

However, it seems they want to focus on the Switch entirely, rather than dividing manufacturing lines between the aging 3DS and the newer Switch/Lite.

Well in that case killing it off probably made even more sense from Nintendo's end as they probably wanted to sell more  switch lites

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Sure looks like it. https://www.nintendo.com/en_CA/3ds/overview just redirects to the Nintendo.com and well...there's no mention of the 3DS console anywhere outside of the (digital) Game Store. And that's just to purchase games for the device. 

[crystal6tak]

I guess the DS/3DS library will live on with emulators.

 

I mean, playing them on something like a Surface Duo (or V60 dual screen) sounds amazing:

The lack of shoulder buttons might be an issue though

[HumdrumPenguin]

19 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

They were still making them? Who's buying a DS over a Switch (outside of collectors) now that the switch has a pretty decent library

There are many nice games exclusive to the DS that you can't get anywhere else.

[suicidalfranco]

On 9/19/2020 at 2:30 PM, HumdrumPenguin said:

There are many nice games exclusive to the DS that you can't get anywhere else.

Bravely Default to name one

[Fatih19]

I remember vividly playing Mario Kart on my cousin's DS about 10 years ago, fun times.

[Letgomyleghoe.]

Rip Mario and Luigi Dream Team.