A friend in school described this, and I found the concept too ridiculous to believe.
I had to apologize when I later saw Dan Hsu pull one out on CNN.
Their next handheld, the DS, was an experimental clamshell console with dual screens and a touch pad, yet was tasked with somehow recovering the ground lost to Sony while also being a worthy successor to the Game Boy name.
It was originally not meant as the “successor” to the game boy, but as a “third pillar” next to console and handheld gaming. This is because the 2 screens of which one was a touch screen was pretty niche at the time.
Soon they realized that its popularity and compatibility with classic handheld games made it a fine successor to game boy games, instead of a gimmicky console that only had a limited run.
They did launch the GB Micro after that, but it was just a very very small GBA SP so I guess that doesn’t count.
Im pretty sure that was just marketing talk, as the original DS could play GBA games.
So… like they said with the switch “this will not kill the 3DS”
And it did kill the 3DS
They consolidated their handheld and console departments into one to be able to sync the 3DS and Wii U releases better, and I guess that’s when it started.
The 3DS was still supported years into the Switch lifecycle and got games. Okay, maybe mostly remakes/ports, but the 3DS was still getting active support. They also launched the “New Nintendo 2DS XL” in 2017 and similar to the GB Micro in the sense that it was a cheaper version of the same hardware (or even less, considering no 3D).
But with all that being said, the elephant in the room is this: our phones killed the 3DS (and other handhelds). Of course portable gaming is far from dead, but traditional handhelds are more niche now due to everything being available on the phone or tablet.
Love my DS! Took a picture of some of my favourites for a mastodon thread earlier but will share here -
