By: Nick Gambino
Nintendo has announced they are discontinuing the wildly popular handheld 3DS, and thus ending an era.
“Production of the main body of the Nintendo 3DS has been discontinued,” the Japanese website reads in ominous red letters that usually accompany the death of a beloved console or device.
The Nintendo 3DS launched back in 2011 as a successor to the DS and featured a 3D display and a plethora of titles that would have any game lover playing for hours on end. In the ensuing years it received a number of upgrades like the 3DS XL, New 3DS, 2DS and 2DS XL.
The more than 75 million units and 384 million games sold during their production run should give you an idea of the little handheld’s popularity. It may not have put up numbers like the DS, but it was no doubt popular.
But like any handheld or console, they have a limited shelf life that eventually sees newer and improved systems eclipsing them. And that’s what happened when the Switch came out. The Switch has proven to be one of the Japanese gaming company’s most popular systems of all time. With the ability to play at home and on-the-go, it provides the 24-hour gaming IV many hardcore gamers crave.
And while the Nintendo handheld met its demise this week, there’s some hope for those still looking to get their 3DS fix.
“Nintendo and third-party games for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems will continue to be available in Nintendo eShop, on Nintendo.com and at retail,” the company clarified in a statement. “The existing library of more than 1,000 Nintendo 3DS games contains many critically acclaimed titles.”
So, if you’ve got your 3DS or pick up one second-hand, you’ll still have access to all of the titles produced over the past 10 years. And with retro gaming in, with companies reproducing Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis among others, you can bet that the 3DS will make a reappearance sometime in the future.
For now, pour one out for the legendary 3DS that ushered in a new era of handheld gaming and pushed the Nintendo brand forward into new heights.
