Nintendo renews commitment to 3DS after strong sales growth

Nintendo 3DS sales rose during the platform holder’s last fiscal year, despite the handheld now being in its seventh year on sale, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima told investors today.

The news comes on the same day that Nintendo announced a brand-new addition to the 3DS family, in the form of the New 2DS XL. Indeed, the share of 2DS sales have been increasing over the last fiscal year, with hardware sell-through now standing at 50-50 in Europe compared to the 3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS and New 3DS XL.

Sell-through for first-party software also saw huge growth in the last fiscal year, and Kimishima re-iterated that the company continues to see "strong potential for the continuation of this business."

Older 3DS titles such as Mario Kart 7, New Super Mario Bros 2 and Pokemon X and Y are contining to sell well, too, with all four titles selling over another million units.

The 3DS’s life span is far from over, too, as Kimishima stated Nintendo will remain committed to releasing new titles for the handheld, such as Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Hey! Pikmin, Ever Oasis and three new Kirby titles, to maintain momentum.

"We will strive to utilize the large installed base of the Nintendo 3DS family of systems in our business to maintain the momentum we have regained over the last year," he said.

"We do not think that [the 3DS and Switch] compete directly in terms of price point or playstyle. We will run businesses separately and in parallel. We have also already stated that we think it is critical that we provide software unique to Nintendo 3DS in order to run both the Nintendo Switch business and the Nintendo 3DS business in parallel."