Nintendo is rumored to be hard at work on a Nintendo Switch version of Super Smash Bros. However, the company doesn’t want to announce the next entry in its fighting game series “at this time.” This came out of a recent interview between Paste Magazine and Nintendo of America’s Doug Bowser, who also talked about how he believes Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS can coexist for years to come. You read a few excerpts from this interview below:
Paste: What will the future of handheld look like as the Nintendo Switch gains momentum as a combination handheld and home console? Nintendo has been more or less single-handedly sustained what’s left of the handheld market in the past few years but with the portability of the Switch, will there even be a 3DS in the future?
Bowser: The Switch is off to a great start. We’ve seen people engaging the Switch in a number of different ways, and we’ve been given some raw data that I won’t get into, but across the spectrum, some never take it out of its cradle, others use it as a portable device, but a lot of people are right in the middle, with a balance between home and portable play. We absolutely believe there’s still a future in handheld, and so we’re investing in it. Couple things: you got an install global base of about 66 million units [for the 3DS]. We’re in the seventh year of the cycle. And we’re going to actually install another 6 million units this year. So that userbase will grow by 10% this year. We have a catalog of a thousand games. We’re launching the 2DS XL, which takes the best of the 2DS and the best of the XL, and brings it together for that user that doesn’t want a 3DS experience, but wants a sleeker clamshell based model. And it delivers that for $149. So, we’re still investing in hardware. And with the announcements you’ve seen this week, we’re obviously still investing in software too.
Paste: Is development for the 3DS continuing at the same rate as in years past or has it slowed down in response to the Nintendo Switch?
Bowser: It’s continuing. Here’s the thing. The 3DS provides a different form of gameplay. We still have a two-screen model that the developers are building for. For example, with the Samus game, they’ll have the map on the bottom and the beautiful gameplay up top, so it’s a really neat opportunity to engage in a different style of gameplay, it can be in parallel with the Switch. They can both survive together.
Paste: Will the next handheld will be another iteration of the 3DS, or a brand new handheld altogether?
Bowser: Right now the one we’re working on is the one we’re about to launch. I think time will tell. We’re only in the early stages of the Switch, we’ll see how the year plays out.
We’ll continue to look at new IP. We’re looking to kind of blend and really the goal for us is to have a steady drumbeat of properties launching every calling, every 4-6 weeks.
Paste: What sort of time frame should Nintendo fans expect on the release of the next Super Smash Bros.?
Bowser: We have nothing to announce at this time.
Source: Paste Magazine
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