Earlier this month, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa suggested that Nintendo's focus "could shift away from home consoles" in time depending on the type of "Nintendo experience" the company wants to deliver. On its own, this comment worried some Switch owners, who wondered if Nintendo's recent dip into - and success with - mobile games will alter its overall strategy. And I'm quite sure it will, but per Furukawa's recent interview with Japanese site Kyoto Shimbun (translated by Nintendo Everything), that won't necessarily subtract from the Switch or Nintendo's other consoles.
"We don’t intend for Switch games to play like smartphone games, or vice versa," Furukawa said, referring to the overlap between Pokemon Let's Go and Pokemon Go. "Our goal is to get people interested in Nintendo’s characters and increase our fanbase." He later clarified that Nintendo "will continue our pace of releasing two or three [mobile] games per year." Nintendo's biggest mobile game in 2018, for example, was Fire Emblem Heroes (which was released in 2017), followed by Dragalia Lost and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, both new releases.
Furukawa also touched on the 3DS family of consoles, which, in its old age, has taken a back seat to the Switch. The 3DS is still the biggest handheld on the market, mind, and the Switch is proof that there's still huge demand for hardware that lets you play great games on the go.
"We’re nearly 8 years into the 3DS’s lifecycle now, so the amount of gamers who have wanted to purchase it are already there," Furukawa said. "The 3DS has its advantages in being a simple and lightweight handheld that is also quite inexpensive. We plan to continue our 3DS business moving forward, as we’ve already prepared it to exist alongside the Switch."
I think it's important to reiterate that the Switch isn't going to change because of this. It's clear both Nintendo and third-party studios are eager to support Switch, and will be for many years to come. Nintendo's expansion into mobile is no reason to worry - the two platforms can co-exist, as they have for some time.
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