Nintendo just posted a notice on the UK and Japanese 3DS sites saying, "Production of the Nintendo 3D lineup has ended."
According to Engadget , shutting down production of the 3DS handheld game console is Nintendo's next step since the company launched its Switch replacement line three years ago. Before that, they shut down the Wii U and 3DS in dozens of regions.
Users can still click through the pages of each model - 3DS, 3DS XL, 2DS and 2DS XL - but they all have the same message. However, the Nintendo US site has taken down the 3DS site entirely, and visiting it will redirect people to its homepage. Users can still access the list of 3DS games on the game store page.
The first 3DS version was released in 2011 as the sequel to Nintendo 's 3D-enabled screen DS console. An XL version with a larger screen was released a year later before the company released their refreshed versions in 2014. Nintendo also released the 2DS - a cheaper version without 3D in 2014. 2013. The final product, the 2DS XL, was launched by the company in 2017.
Nintendo didn't abandon the 3DS line as soon as the Switch launched, but it's possible the company decided it was the right time to get rid of it because it's not selling as well as it used to. In a fiscal year 2019 earnings report , Nintendo said 3DS hardware sales fell 73% year-over-year, while both the Switch and Switch Lite were good. In recent times, the Covid-19 pandemic has helped boost Nintendo's Switch console sales with 5.68 million units sold in the three months of the second quarter of 2020, more than double compared to the same period in 2019.