Back in May, Nintendo’s then former president Tatsumi Kimishima and now newly president Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that they will continue to support the 3DS and that it can coexist alongside the Nintendo Switch. Furukawa has been president for just over a week and is already talking about a successor to the 3DS.

The handheld console celebrated its seventh birthday this year and is still selling well, having sold over 72 million units worldwide. However, one would argue that it might be on the way out given the diminishing line-up of future games (there is Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, WarioWare Gold and the remake of Luigi’s Mansion to look forward to).

In an interview with newspaper Kyoto Shimbun (translated via Nintendo Everything), Furukawa revealed that “the 3DS has certain advantages over the Switch such as ease of purchase and the like.” Basically, the Switch is still pretty expensive and the 3DS makes for a low-cost alternative. Plus, because it’s been around longer, there is already a huge library of games (including compatibility with DS games). Furukawa also said that they are “considering various possibilities” in regards to a follow-up, meaning that despite the popularity of the Switch, Nintendo has not ruled out the possibility of releasing another handheld console.

He also commented on releasing games for smartphones, saying, “In order to make smartphone games a pillar of our company’s income, reaching at least 100 billion yen [around £684 million / $903 million] is a must.” He added that mobile gaming was, “an important business to keep in mind for the future. [Having sales reach at least 100 billion yen] is going to be difficult, a challenge to be sure. We’ll keep producing original, creative games to realize that goal, however.”

Nintendo has developed only a handful of games for smartphones, those being Miitomo, Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

Originally published on MyM Buzz on 3 July 2018.