It was a little more than a year ago that Nintendo stated that they were still planning to support their handheld, the Nintendo 3DS. Since then, the company has released an updated version of the Switch, and even handheld edition named the Switch Lite, which essentially meant that the once unstoppable portable machine’s day’s were more than likely numbered. Sure enough, the day has come. Nintendo officially announced on their Japanese website that the 3DS production has been discontinued, effectively ending the lifetime of the system. The company reaffirmed this in statement made to Games Industry Biz. This is further exemplified by the fact that the U.S. website no longer features the Nintendo 3DS in any way shape or form.
Here’s the full statement from the company to Games Industry Biz:
We can confirm that the manufacturing of the Nintendo 3DS family of systems has ended. Nintendo and third-party games for the Nintendo 3DS family of system will continue to be available in Nintendo eShop, on Nintendo.com and at retail. The existing library of more than 1,000 Nintendo 3DS games contains many critically acclaimed titles and can provide years of content to explore and enjoy. We currently have no plans to end any existing online services for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. Online play and Nintendo eShop will continue to be available and it will be possible to access and redownload all previously purchased content in the foreseeable future.
Currently, you can still purchase the most recent iteration of the 3DS family line, the Nintendo 2DS XL, at most retailers around the world, but now that the system is no longer being developed, it may only be a matter of time before we see the majority of them pop up on third party sites such as eBay. With the advancements made with the Switch in the past year, and with the rumor of newer version coming out next year, it’s not very surprising that Nintendo has decided to pull the plug on the 3DS line.
The original Nintendo 3DS came out in 2011 and had the unfortunate task of trying to be the follow up to the beloved Nintendo DS. It didn’t go very well at first, as sales were much lower than Nintendo anticipated, most of which was attributed to the rather abysmal launch lineup. Nintendo attempted to alleviate this by slashing the price greatly and making several classic titles available to those who ordered the system early on.
The system would of course receive numerous revisions over the years starting with the much bigger 3DS XL, the New 3DS and its XL counterpart, the clam-less 2DS, and finally the 2DS Xl. The 3DS line of systems ended up being a massive success for Nintendo, selling approximately 75.9 million units worldwide, with software sales sitting at 384 million sold. In terms of sales, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Nintendo DS, which ended at 154 million units, but Nintendo had yet another major impact on the video game market. The Nintendo 3DS may be gone, but it will never be forgotten.