Much to everyone’s utter shock, the New 2DS XL was not a joke console reveal, it was not a gag or an April Fool’s prank, but a legitimate, honest announcement of a new handheld system from Nintendo.
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime spoke to TIME Magazine recently and told the publication that Nintendo’s goal was to provide a gaming console that falls in the middle of the 3DS family of consoles:
“There is a visual impact difference between these different items, and we believe in our market by having these three different variants. The Nintendo 2DS really focused on that entry level gamer, the four-, five-, six-year old that is just getting into gaming, but wants to play Mario Kart, wants to have a Super Mario Bros. experience, wants to play Pokémon. And we feel with Nintendo 3DS XL at $199 that it’s a fully-featured product, that it is, if you will, the Cadillac of handheld gaming. And then we heard from consumers, ‘Boy, I wish there was something in between.’”
This comes after Nintendo’s pledge to continue support for the 3DS family of systems for the time being, despite considerable speculation on the part of the gaming community that Nintendo would phase out the 3DS fairly quickly after the Switch’s release.
Well, this new model—essentially a prettier version of an early DS, let’s face it—shows us that support for the 3DS family is sticking around for a while, after all… strange as it may seem.