2019 is already off to an interesting start for Nintendo. In regards to gaming, New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe has already done wonderfully on Nintendo Switch, and Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes releases today for it. So that’s already two big titles in the first month of the year. Plus, console sales are still doing really well. But as February draws ever closer, you can’t help but wonder…will Nintendo be able to keep things up?
This is exactly what was asked to Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa, who noted in an interview with Kyoto Shimbun this:
It’s not an easy target to hit by any means, so we’re going to thoroughly examine the trends from the year-end and beginning of the year. We’ll be going into our third year of the console soon, and the “newness” of the Switch will start wearing off. So, it’s crucial for us to release a steady stream of games. We want to show off that users can change their playstyle with the hybrid console and that it can be taken with you and set up anywhere.
Now, the elephant in the room is definitely the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo claims that they’re still going to support it, but 2018 had no new exclusives, just ports of older titles. So are they still going to try and keep it going?
We’re nearly 8 years into the 3DS’s lifecycle now, so the amount of gamers who have wanted to purchase it are already there. The 3DS has its advantages in being a simple and lightweight handheld that is also quite inexpensive. We plan to continue our 3DS business moving forward, as we’ve already prepared it to exist alongside the Switch.
Fans may not know how to feel about that, as they think Nintendo needs to move on and focus solely on the Nintendo Switch. We’ll just have to see what they do.
