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Nintendo 3DS production has been officially discontinued

The end of the 3DS marks the end of Nintendo's popular dual-screen handheld brand.

TJ Denzer

September 17, 2020 1:22 PM

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It’s a grim day to mark on the calendar for video game historians. Nintendo has seemingly discontinued production of any and all models of the 3DS handheld console. Effective immediately, the end of the DS handheld era is officially upon us with no further models being designed or produced.

The news came out of a discovery on the Japanese Nintendo website, as recently reported by The Verge. According to the Japanese site, each of the formerly available Nintendo 3DS models now has a “Discontinued” notification attached to them. Moreover, on the main page, a message referencing the official discontinuation has been posted.

“Production of the main body of the Nintendo 3DS series has been discontinued,” the message reads roughly.

Meanwhile over on the US Nintendo site, every single mention, link, and page relating to the 3DS family of handhelds has been entirely removed, save for a link to the Nintendo 3DS Technical Support pages that can be seen immediately under the similarly discontinued Wii U. Though no official announcement has been made in the US, it seems to indicate that the company is completely done with the 3DS in both markets.

It’s an interesting day to see the 3DS completely shuttered, but not one that was unexpected at this point. Nintendo has had all of its focus centered on the Nintendo Switch for quite some time now and has shown full intention of going even more full throttle than ever on the handheld/home console hybrid. Nintendo apparently just boosted production of the Switch system and is likely putting all resources towards meeting the goal it has set for itself for the end of this fiscal year.

It’s certainly a shame to see the sun setting on the DS lineup. Both the original DS and the 3DS produced years upon years of good gaming. We’ll always have the memories, though… and occasionally in glorious 3D.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.