Topic: To late to join 3DS Family?

Hey Gamers

I was wondering...
its been a long time since i owned a handheld, the last one i owned was game boy advance lol
so im wondering... Is it to late to buy a 3ds?? I mean with the Nintendo NX coming out and all???
Or will the 3ds still serve me a few years??

also should i go for the 3ds or the XL?

@mar3dsnl the 3ds literly has hundreds of great games you've never played and a lot of them are pretty cheap these days. It's never to late for a system. I picked up a Sega master system about 4 months ago and have had a blast with it. 😊

I guess you are right but im not very rich at all i have very little money i saved up 200 just to get it
but i wanna know if games will keep coming out for it ? or are they going to stop releasing new titles soon? if so then im not sure , but i am leaning towards a 3ds XL ill prob get it next week when i get my money also what game do you recommand with it? i love RPGs the most

There's games coming for it. Even some ports of great Wiiu games.

@mar3dsnl In your circumstances you should wait, or try and pick up a decent used bundle on eBay.

There are still games coming for 3DS in 2017, but given the age of the system it's unlikely to see too many new big games, I'm thinking.

I would normally still recommend the 3DS, but as you've specifically stated an interest in new releases, I think it's days are numbered in that respect.

Within a couple of months we should hopefully know more about NX.

but the thing is the nintendo nx is a console? i want a handheld tho

@mar3dsnl they have titles listed till mid next year. That's all anyone knows.

@mar3dsnl nobody knows what the nx is.

I love my 3ds. I got it three years ago and intend to play it for several more years. In fact, I recently got a New 3ds so that I can still play it after my current one wears out.

That said, the NX looks like it might blow away the 3ds. It might be worth holding out for.

I would hold off on purchasing any Nintendo hardware at this point until we know what the NX is.

Hang on a sec...everyone's talking as though the 3DS is to be discontinued.

Have I missed an announcement? I just thought the 3DS would just keep getting rivisions and be nintendo's handheld format from here on, is that not the case?

Is everyone really that sure the NX will be a replacement for the Dual Screen handheld?

Did I miss an announcement?

yeah i feel the same as you i dont think the nx will be a replacement of handheld i think nx is just a console and the 3ds will stay for now .. i hope at least till end of 2017 it be stupid to release console and then month later new handheld itll cost too much money and i dont think nintendo will make the same mistake to make nx a hybrid so i think the 3ds will be here to stay for now i think im going to pick one up i rly want to play pokemon and i dont want to wait till 2017 to do so

@SuperPaperLuigi
The 3DS will be discontinued eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later, the hardware is limping along as it is.

The 3DS still has tons of great games coming out in 2017.

As far as NX in 2017, we will likely get limited news and more delays based on Nintendo's recent and historic track record.

@CDavis7M doubt it. No way they will release it after the Scorpio

It just seems strange to me that people are even talking about the 3DS being discontinued, it just hadn't occurred to me that that might happen. I think it'll get updated periodically and always be obsoleting itself in that respect, but (discounting mobile [famous last words, I know]) they're well established and they've basically got no competition in the handheld space, and the basic dual screen design is probably not going to be improved upon (at least until they can get a flexible enough screen that it'll span the hinge (or can be rolled out of the system like a roll of film) but that's probably still some way off at this point).

Personally I would have thought the end of xDSx line would only arrive along with the end of the dedidcated hand-held console systems as a general concept due to gaming in the mobile space but even then, are people going to want phones with control inputs and it means going back to a single screen...

...Maybe the answer is a circle pad pro type interface for phones with a built in second screen. It wouldn't surprise me in the least (due to the effect of "Moore's Law") if the future of consoles is modular with the system hardware being swapped in and out like cartridges to keep up with the rate of hardware development...it seems interfacing with phone technology could very well be the way to go in that case.

Edit: I've taken a closer look at this stuff and I think waiting is actually the best thing to do. I'm convinced the NX is going to have a dual screen controller that doubles as a portable hand-held.

@Ichi I guess, but unless Mobile phone gaming takes off in such a way that it's no longer financially viable to produce dedicated gaming devices (which gets more likely with each passing year given both Moore's law causing accelerated obsolescent and the upgrade programs already established for mobiles) I'm personally assuming it's going nowhere until it either gets a screen that spans the hinge (and therefore is no longer technically a dual screen device) or until it's a single screen device that interfaces with a mobile phone for the lower touch screen.

Even if it's discontinued in the future, a new user will have plenty to play. And it's still a supported console, and will be for at least a few more years.

It's kinda like telling someone wanting to experience the snes "don't get a SNES, they don't make new games for it!".

I'd wait to hear if the NX is backwards compatible with 3DS.

@Ralizah Normally that would be my advice (it's what I'd do) but he specifically wants a portable and he doesn't want to have to wait to play Pokemon, and NX is still five to six months out (at time of writing), assuming it sticks to its current release schedule (rather than being pushed back, which is also a possibility). :0/

I think he's worried that the 3DS is going to be discontinued due to the release of the NX and while I suppose the NX being a portable handheld can't be ruled out as an impossibility, I think it's almost certainly going to be a home system and not something you're going to want to carry around with you in public...after all, if it were designed with that in mind wouldn't it just be the new New3DS?

DS series release dates...

DS... November 21, 2004 (Released first in North America[?])
DS Lite... March 2nd 2006 (Japanese Release)
DSi... November 1, 2008 (Japanese Launch)
3DS... February 26, 2011 (Japanese Launch)
New3DS... October 11, 2014 (Japanese Launch)

...okay, so...the release schedule for the DS revisions seems to be slowing & potentially there's another revision in the pipeline...

...NX is currently scheduled for release in March of 2017...

...whether the NX is going to be a handheld to take it's place? Potentially, if it's kind of a two-in one system where the controller is a new 3DS revision rebranded and packed in with a console base unit...then, possibly the NX might supersede the New3DS.

But at this point I'm not sure whether Nintendo have even specified whether it is going to be a unit specifically for the home or whether it's going to be a portable handheld...my money would be on the former rather than the latter, and I don't think they'd pack in a 3DS revision, unless they were hoping the base unit could be upgraded modularly (otherwise I'm pretty sure the cost would be prohibitive).

...I did read somewhere that Nintendo are supposed to have take out a patent for a unit that could be added to and upgraded modularly with multiples of the same (or I guess potentially similar) units...

...If that's true then it's possible that the NX might not be either a new 3DS or a successor to the Wii-U but rather, both...

...and potentially the pack-in 3DS could be backward compatible with the Wii-U, with the Wii-U being obsoleted some time in the future as the NX is incrementally upgraded with new modules.

...that would maintain and potentially increase the 3DS install base at the same time as potentially reinvigorating the Wii-U while placating it's existing subscribership and would tackle the problem of accelerated obsolescence due to Moore's law and mitigation of risk in terms of Nintendo's investment.

When is something more of the same but not the one thing or the other? When it's both of those existing things in one (it's not one thing or the other because it's both) otherwise, to be a new way of playing, it would just have to be VR or AR (possibly a set with an image that blends with the image on the controller through cross-hatched, camera-driven spacial positioning).

So, yes...I think the NX will obsolete the current 3DS. It'll launch with a packed in revision for the 3DS that'll be the controller for the system and which will allow you to take games you're playing on your T.V. outside with you...the processing power would be divided equally between the handheld and the base unit and both will be revised, improved upon and updated incrementally, one through addition of modular expansion components, the other just updated on the established two-year upgrade cycle (as the PS4 and Xbox One are (also now) on a two year upgrade cycle).

@mar3dsnl It would be on my conscience if I didn't tell you I think my previous response was wrong and that, looking closer at it, I think the NX will obsolete the current New3DS.