Well they removed the GBA BC for it as well though, so the DSL was still worth having.

Yeah, removing the BC was what pissed me off. I had the original DS, and didn't feel the need for a DSL, since it was basically the same thing but cheaper and lighter. Then the DSi came out, and internet sounded pretty nifty, but I love my GBA games too much, so I just stuck with my original and passed on DSiWare. I don't regret that choice.

I see where ur coming from but the CCP was never meant to be a huge deal, only a few 3rd party titles used it and left-handed Kid Icarus players. On the other hand, Amiibo's are clearly meant to be a driving force for Wii U/3DS in the coming years with multiple 1st party games already announced to support them so having a sku without the need for an add-on would be great for potential onwners.

Maybe the XL will get a price cut to 169.99$

Well the XL & 2DS werent announced at E3 either, Nintendo instead decided to announce them in the coming weeks/months.

I think theyll wait to see how popular it gets before they do it though. If the Amiibos flop, then theyll have a useless feature that will up the cost of every 3DS for them.

The XL is better in every relevant way to the OG and the 2DS is the cheapest 8th Gen console. The OG has its fans but there'd be no loss in phasing it out.

Good point, I overlooked that.

Well, both the 3DS XL and 2DS are the newer versions and both might be doing better than the original 3DS, so it's not really that surprising..

Well, at least on the US website, its like the originals are hidden in the farthest possible cranny. So yes, there are some things that seem to indicate theyre moving away from the original (RIP)