Breh's, what if the next Metroid is a New 3DS exclusive?
This will most likely play out just like the DSi did.
You will need a New 3DS to play most, if not all the new 1st party games from Nintendo moving forward. So if you want to play the next installment of Pokemon, a potential new Zelda, Metroid, Xenoblade Chronicles or whatever they have lined up then you will need to upgrade. Most 3rd parties will not be making games for this because it increases costs and like others have said it splits the install base.
You could play those DSi games but they ran like shyt. But I guess that's better than this is some ways.That's not how the DSi was though. I don't think that any packaged software was released in America exclusively for DSi, just downloadable titles. So if they really start releasing first party games that are only for the New 3DS, this is basically an entirely new handheld, because most people buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo games.