The True Successor to the 3DS

 By: Patrick Morris

Starting in 2017 Nintendo made one of the biggest comeback's in the history of the video game industry. Despite how genuinely awesome the Wii U was, when it came time to hang it up the console would go down as an unprecedented failure. But after the failure of the Wii U and the success of the 3DS Nintendo's first hybrid console has left audiences in a perpetual state of debate as to whether the Switch is primarily a handheld or home console. In my opinion Nintendo's primary focus is fairly clear as the Switch is the final realization of something the company has been working towards for nearly 30 years. For whatever reason people have just assumed that the Switch is Nintendo's continuation of their home console lineup, but when taking everything into account it appears as though the Switch is more of a successor to the 3DS than it is to the Wii U resulting in a significantly easier prediction as to what Nintendo will be doing next.

 

Timing is everything and it's still a measure we use to predict product releases to this day. The NES reigned supreme for six years from 1985 to 1991. Then came the SNES for 5 years from 91-96. After that we got the N64 for five years from 96-01 followed by five years of GameCube from 01-06. Nintendo's revolution became a phenomenon taking the world by storm from 06-2012 only to be replaced by the stellar but underappreciated Wii U in 2012. Then in March of 2017 less than four and a half years later the Nintendo Switch hit the market. The life span of the Nintendo home consoles averages roughly 5 years and 2 months. From 1989 through 1998 the Gameboy was the dominant force in the handheld market. Replacing the Gameboy in 1998 was the Gameboy Color that would enjoy a significantly shorter time atop the throne from 1998 through 2001. From 2001 through 2004 the Gameboy advance and it's subsequent itterations were what Nintendo had to offer for on the go gaming and then from 2004 through 2011 the DS absolutely trounced the hugely successful PSP only being replaced by the 3DS in 2011. Across five handhelds and nearly 30 years the average life span of a Nintendo handheld comes out to just about five years and seven months. Seeing as the 3DS was released in february of 2011 and the Wii U was released more than a year and a half later in November 2012 Nintendo's handhelf lineup was more due for an update than the home consoles. 

 

Furthermore Nintendo has a long history of making radical changes to their home consoles from one generation to the next. From the more traditional experience of the GameCube, to the highly approachable motion based Wii, to the hybrid asymetrical Wii U Nintendo hasn’t provided a largely similar experience to it's previous generation since 2001. Radical change is the name of the game for Nintendo's home consoles and while yes, the Switch can be considered a radical departure from the Wii U, it's even more a continuation of a tried and true handheld experience. Since 1989 Nintendo has been iterating on and fine tuning the core experience first found in the Gameboy. With each new handheld the experience was largely improved but still familiar. And that tradition continued from the 3DS to the Switch and was even further cemented with the introduction of the Switch Lite.

 

And with the overwhelming success of the Switch, Nintendo has finally achieved a goal to which they have been working toward since the days of the Super Nintendo. In the early 90's Nintendo released the Super Gameboy, an SNES cartridge with the hardware of a Gameboy inside and a slot for Gameboy games allowing players to play their Gameboy games on the TV in their living room. There was a similar product planned for the N64 that was never released and then during the GameCube era Nintendo released the Gameboy Player, an attachment for the Gamecube that allowed players to play Gameboy Advance game's in the living room. Nintendo's focus and success has always been in their handheld consoles and even during the hey day of their most successful console ever the Wii they were still selling more DS's than they were Wii's. Considering the reliable success of their handheld lineup in the context of the volatility of their home consoles it's only natural that Nintendo try to move that handheld success into the living room. And that's exactly what the Switch is. The Switch is a handheld first, one descended of the original Gameboy with a design mentality derived of the Super Gameboy and the Gameboy player; a handheld that is designedd from the ground up to be played on the TV. 

 

So now the question of what comes next from Nintendo? It's one that has been asked countless times in discord servers, on podcasts, and without a doubt on playgrounds all over the world. Well when asking that question through the lens of the Switch being the successor to the 3DS it becomes significantly more clear than when looked at as the successor to the Wii U. Nintendo has been working toward this goal since the early 90's. It has been a focus of theirs for years and now that they’ve finally achieved that goal it's only natural that they will iterate on and experiment with it. Whatever the next console from Nintendo Is I have little doubt that it will be something very much in line with the Switch.