Interesting -- I get the business decision behind this but I do hope Nintendo carefully allocates its resources here so as to make sure its 3/2DS development doesn't hamper the Switch.
Remember one of the BIG positives about the Switch was that its release schedule wouldn't suffer from so many deserts because Nintendo would consolidate its development houses for one console. This new 2DS, however, along with continued new release announcements - and probably more incoming at E3, means Nintendo will continue to invest resources to developing on it.
Hopefully, this move doesn't critically harm the Switch.
Again, while the business decision makes sense, we should also be mindful that keeping the 3/2DS alive may mean 3rd parties that planned to move to the Switch might instead stay on the older handheld for the same reasons as Nintendo is keeping it going - it has a 65+ million user base compared to Switch's 2.7 million.
It's becoming slowly apparent to the more general public that the Switch is never going to get the AAA 3rd party games (we already knew this since the hardware isn't strong enough), but if the best Switch is going to get outside Nintendo is Payday 2 and (may be) the 5-6 yr. old Skyrim, there is no guarantee the Switch may not be headed to a fate not dissimilar from the Wii U.
Both the Wii and Wii U actually sold more than the Switch (
as IGN reports here) over a 1.5 month period. Now the other two came out over the holiday period, so that 1.5 month comparison isn't perfectly analogous. What this does mean though is - as IGN correctly notes - the Switch's great start
doesn't tell us all that much ... at least not yet.
I want the Switch to do well ... I sure hope Nintendo's need to keep the 3/2DS line-up going -- which again makes business sense -- doesn't come at the detriment of the Switch's future looking more like the Wii vs. the Wii U.