Soundwave on 05 June 2013
In hindsight I think Nintendo would've opted not to build the DS successor around the 3D concept, but hindsight is 20/20. They probably felt like they needed some kind of "hook" and that was the best they could come up with.
Unfortunately for them when the system didn't sell well initially, it burned them and they had to eat a hardware loss which led to their first fiscal loss in company history. That type of 3D screen is a custom component and was likely pretty expensive.
