Nintendo 3DS Successor?

According to Nintendo's new president, Shuntaro Furukawa, they are considering the possibilities for a successor to the Nintendo 3DS (source). Well, this is only natural and it doesn't necessarily mean that there will be one. There are some pro and cons to this and I can see Nintendo's dilemma.

With the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U we had the issue of both systems cannibalizing each other with many similar games. As Zelda-fans we could basically be happy to have had completely unique experiences on both systems, but otherwise this was a big problem.

And the Nintendo Switch seemed like a solution: combine both handheld and home console in one system, where Nintendo can focus all their efforts, instead of dividing them. and if you can play games like Breath of the Wild on the go and on the big screen alike, why would you even want to invest in a dedicated handheld system? Well, the president says it himself:

The 3DS has certain advantages over the Switch such as ease of purchase and the like.

A major aspect, why Nintendo even might consider a Nintendo 3DS successor at this point, is the kids market, where the Switch might be out of touch. Nintendo 2DS systems were cheap and robust, perfect for younger players. The games were really not that cheap, though. And the kids market heavily shifted towards mobile devices with their simple touch controls and large amounts of free games. Six year olds get a Smartphone for their first day at school these days, not GameBoys.

And Nintendo is already targeting this market with mobile games like Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour. Of course the goal here is create awareness for Nintendo's own gaming devices, where you get the big Mario experiences with Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch. A solution might be offering a cheaper handheld-only version of the Switch later in its life time.

But the Nintendo 3DS still has another advantage, which the Switch doesn't have: its dual screen approach, where you can always use a touchscreen for input. You can't use the Switch's touchscreen in its docked mode, so there can't be any games relying on the touchscreen. While many Wii U titles successfully got ported to the Switch, most of them didn't require the touchscreen in the original. But there are games like Super Mario Maker, which really rely on that, where it's currently doubtful whether they get ported or not. And you also have this big library of Nintendo DS and 3DS games, where some games might simply not work on Switch at all.

Well, to be fair, a big part of the games didn't make much use of the two screens anyway. Mostly the second screen was just there for maps and inventories. This is even the case with all the Zelda titles, besides the occasional two-screen boss fight in the two Nintendo DS outings. But even these two games could effectively be ported to Smartphones, if Nintendo ever wanted to bring them back...

And this might even be, what Nintendo's 3DS successor could look like - a Smartphone, where you can attach a controller to play all kinds of games in the Nintendo DS style. You could use it like a normal phone and play some touch-only titles or you could use the controller for more advanced games.

It's not the most revolutionary idea, but it would successfully target today's kids market, while keeping the dual screen approach (as one big screen). They could even offer backwards compatibility to the Nintendo 3DS library, while offering remakes/remasters of the most popular Nintendo DS games. Of course Nintendo would need to partner up with some established Smartphone producer, because you wouldn't want them to produce their own phone UI, where it would be too limited to be a success.

But for now it would certainly be the best, if Nintendo focuses on the Switch and tries to become more familiar with today's mobile market at first.