Enlarge / A Switch Joy-Con sits alongside a 3DS XL, just as Nintendo says the Switch will sit alongside the 3DS in the marketplace. (credit: Kotaku)

With the Nintendo Switch acting as both a fully portable system and a TV-based console, you might think that the hardware is intended to serve as a replacement for both the Wii U and the 3DS. But while the Wii U has already been discontinued, Nintendo insists that the 3DS will continue to be supported well into the Switch’s lifespan.

“In our view, the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch are going to live side-by-side,” Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told Wired in a recent interview. “They’re going to coexist just fine. We’ve done this before, managing two different systems.”

While it’s definitely true that Nintendo has managed two (or more) systems at the same time in the past, the company does not usually maintain two portable systems concurrently for very long. Back in 2004, for instance, Nintendo revealed the Nintendo DS as a “third pillar” in its hardware line up, alongside the existing Game Boy Advance and GameCube platforms.