The Nintendo 3DS has been around for over a decade. Despite becoming an extremely successful console with over 75 million units sold, Nintendo has since moved on to other consoles such as the Switch. Or so it would seem. Surprisingly, after almost 9 months since its last update, Nintendo has issued a new system update for the Nintendo 3DS.
This news comes from OatmealDome on Twitter, known for his leaks and data mining. According to the Tweet, this newest patch for the handheld updates the system to version 11.15.0-47 and is supposed to increase stability. The previous Nintendo 3DS update back in November 2020 aimed to improve system stability as well. Furthermore, the update appears to focus on the device's internet browser with OatmealDome suggesting that the update might pertain to "possibly fixing an exploit."
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It's no doubt that the 3DS has an impressive lineup of titles such as Super Mario 3D Land, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and Mario Kart 7 just to mention a few. With so many good games available to play, it's not surprising that the system has manage to become popular since its launch in 2011. Odds are that there are still people playing games on the handheld in 2021. However, according to the patch notes, this system update appears to apply primarily to those that use the device to browse the internet.
The question regarding this recent update from Nintendo is whether anybody still cares about the system. Recently, one Reddit user named itsmefizzy came up empty handed after attempting to find other users through the 3DS communication feature called StreetPass. While this lack of participation from 3DS owners might disappoint some, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise considering Nintendo's focus on the equally successful Switch, another console that is capable of portable play.
Nintendo has been phasing out the dual-screen console for a while now. They announced back in 2020 that they were discontinuing the Nintendo 3DS, while over the year prior to that news the system had seen hardly any new game releases. The peculiarity of this new system update has caused some people on Twitter to question if this update specifically targeting browser stability might have something to do with the removal of credit card support for the 3DS eShop that is coming in 2022. While no one knows for sure, perhaps this system update is an attempt to increase the handheld's stability to prevent hackers from trying to mess with the console's online services.