Many Nintendo fans were frustrated with Nintendo of America for not bringing the regular New Nintendo 3DS over which has the awesome interchangeable faceplates. Damon Baker, Senior Manager in Marketing and Licensing, says the reason for not bringing the regular New Nintendo 3DS was simply down to the fact that they had to market two similar systems and that consumers could get confused with the amount of products available.

Yeah (laughs). Look, the face plates are super cool, but we’re a different market. And now we have clear differentiation between those three systems. Before, there was a very limited difference between the 3DS and 3DS XL: other than size. It was the same resolution, same functionality… now, there’s the 2DS, 3DS, and New 3DS XL, all of which have their own functionality and features. The different price points give it a clear message for consumers. The core audience… we weren’t going to win with them on that decision. But we had to think about expanding the user base, we had to be able to market it and make it easy to pick up for consumers.

http://mynintendonews.com/2015/02/17/nintendo-of-america-explains-the-lack-of-regular-new-nintendo-3ds-we-had-to-be-able-to-market-it/

"now, there’s the 2DS, 3DS, and New 3DS XL, all of which have their own functionality and features."

Unless he's referring to the 3DS XL, and not the regular 3DS, this explanation makes no sense. It's my understanding that the original 3DS is no longer sold in the US.

So they are forcing people to pay more for the N3DS because the different price point gives a clear message to the consumers?  Why is the regular 3DS still even being sold?  That should be discontinued.  

I think that not even Nintendo knows what the hell they are doing these days.

Shit like this really makes me hate Nintendo well Nintendo of America anyway... This is one of the most stupid things I've read in really long time v.v oh yes, because the 2DS/OG 3DS models are so important to the line up that a standard newer model cannot release here.

Good ol Nintendo always making your decisions for you. Aren't they nice?

wrong. It has not been discontinued. 

Yeah, I really really don't get it

But at least I got my nice new "new 3DS" in the UK. Seems to work pretty well and not be too confusing

i will take multiple words to say plus one.

Let me translate the language of corporate for you: 3DS XL sales in the US annihilated standard 3DS sales. Like it did everywhere else.  Which is why they discontinued the standard 3DS in the US in the first place.  So the market for the N3DSXL is bigger than the N3DS. It's really that simple. If they bring the N3DS to the market, they'll probably do it during a holiday season to capitalize on the rush.