Topic: Nintendo switch handheld mode doesn't compete with 3DS

https://nintendosoup.com/reggie-nintendo-switch-handheld-mode... your thoughts?

How do you have thoughts about a PR statement that is clearly just trying to dodge complaints from 3DS/Switch owners about which is better?

It doesn't really. 3DS has hundreds of games that only it can play with its dual screens and particular cartridge.
I own both and the 3DS comes out occasionally. Not everyone is ready to drop a few hundo on a switch for themselves or their accident prone 5 yr old.

For a vast majority, it absolutely does. For a vast majority, they couldn’t trade up to console quality HD handheld gaming with rumble and full button set quick enough. For a vast majority, Switch was a one-way ticket they’ve been waiting on since the advent of the flatscreen.

For the rest, it probably doesn’t. 3DS is far cheaper, and far more durable for younger kids.

It's all just PR talk. Realistically, of course they're competing, to an extent at least. I used to play my 3DS every single day but I haven't played it a single time since the Switch came out.

Both of Switch and 3DS are two DIFFERENT things with their merit.
I still play my 3DS even though i have Switch also.

@Pianomanfreak like @subpopz said, of course the leader of a company has to say things like this.

But I do not think he is entirely wrong. The 3DS isn't what it used to be. It is no longer a primary machine for Nintendo, but a side machine serving as an entry level product. A new Switch is 300 dollars. A new "New 2DS" is half that price. The base model is only 80 bucks. You can buy the base model and 5 full price new 3DS games for less than the cost of just a new Switch. That's bloody ideal for a kid and clearly the Switch can't compete with that.

But the gaming market isn't only parents buying for little kids. Obviously. For most gamers, the Switch is competing. Yeah the 2/3DS is much cheaper with that awesome backlog of games. But most gamers have been gamers for a while now. And we have probably played the 3DS games we want to, or at least most of them. All the meaningful, highest quality new content is coming to the Switch. That's where more gamers are gonna look.

of course the Switch and the 3DS don't compete. for the same reason that bananas don't compete with grapefruits. they're two very different things.

Doesn't change the fact that outside the Kirby's Epic Yarn port, there's nothing upcoming for the 3DS in Japan.

He's saying it doesn't compete but the conclusion is a completely different if you read the full quote from the source and not the summary article:

He's not saying the hardware doesn't compete or that the Switch isn't the 3DS successor. All he said was that currently, with its significantly lower RRP, the 3DS still has a reason to exist. The Switch can't compete in that price bracket so the 3DS is still the console that best fills the niche served by a budget console.

But by saying that he's effectively saying that this is all that the 3DS is doing. He literally says that the demographics of users between the Switch and 3DS are rapidly becoming different. If the 3DS is increasingly for kids and budget gamers then "core" and "adult" gamers must be gravitating towards Switch. Being budget and nothing else is the last need a console serves before being taken out the back and shot.

He goes further than this, he then goes on to say that the Switch is where they want people who buy a 3DS to end up. That it's literally the upgrade path he wants consumers to be taking. The definition of a successor. To be blunt, this is the first time I've seen any Nintendo PR where they are starting to talk about the 3DS' shrinking market. They're laying the PR groundwork for the Switch inevitably being the only game in town for Nintendo.

@Seacliff There’s still the possibility that Nintendo will announce something new for the 3DS in the next Nintendo Direct.

But why should they?
Every 3DS game in 2018 had sold poorly, despite many of them being some notably good titles. Just moving said projects onto the Switch alone will guarantee more sales at this point.

It sounds crazy, but you can break a business having your eggs in one basket and trying to keep up with massive demand.