The end of the 3DS marks an inflection point for portable gaming

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  A few of the 3DS variation that were, until recently, supported by Nintendo. [credit: Mark Walton ]

Nintendo seems to have halted production on all variations of the Nintendo 3DS, marking the first time since 2004 that Nintendo is not producing any dual-screen portable systems.

Nintendo's Japanese website now lists all the recent hardware variations in the Nintendo 3DS line (the Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 2DS LL, and New Nintendo 3DS LL) as "Out of Production." Nintendo's US site, meanwhile, seems to have been scrubbed of all mentions of the 3DS: the system's official landing page now just redirects to Nintendo's general home page, while Google's cache and The Internet Archive showed an active promotional page just days ago.

Back in 2017, Nintendo said explicitly that the newly launched Nintendo Switch wouldn't replace the 3DS. Since then, the company has repeatedly reaffirmed that continued support, saying as recently as last November that the 3DS would be supported into 2020.

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