You're right about SMG, but Prime Trilogy was criminally undershipped. It's extremely rare and at least as expensive as Xenoblade. It's a great candidate for a 3DS or Wii U remake.

I think the XL is also sold for about 18,000¥ though, yet it is sold for $200 in America. So I would expect the New XL to also cost $200. If they do cut it to $180 that would be amazing.

Was it? I bought the Trilogy Day 1 and have probably largely underestimated its availability as I didn't care if it was available or not after purchasing it! :P News to me, really, as I thought it was abundantly shipped unlike the 400k copies of Xenoblade which all sold out.

The XL and the nXL are the same price in yen, yes, and its possible it will also be priced a bit higher in the states at 200$. You may be right that it will be a little bit more expensive but I was more thinking along the lines of how the DSi was priced when it launched as in not the price of the DSlite if I recall but considerably more expensive.

Also has the region locking or lack there of been confirmed or not yet? Because if this is region unlocked, I am going to have to bother some friends to ship this out to me day 1.

Prime Trilogy sells for $50 used at GameStop at the moment. There was a time not long ago when they were charging something like $70 or more for it, until people made a big enough stink and they cut the price. Anyway, new copies go for a lot more than $70 if you can find them online.

I doubt the new system will be region unlocked, but I suppose it's possible. Some people seem to think they heard Iwata mention that. Nothing has been officially confirmed about it. I wouldn't get my hopes up, unfortunately.

Will have to wait and see, then. I do hope it is region unlocked but I suppose there is the, obvious, worry of the reverse importing of games by the Japanese to shirk the prices/taxes that they have to deal with.

Here's what comes from this:
Games will benefit from the stronger CPU, and particularly the increase in VRAM. The 3DS was closer to the Gamecube, and this new model is closer to the Wii. Also, games will benefit from more controller inputs.

The 3DS Remastered.

Its an upgrade, just like old DSi has double RAM & faster CPU which is better than original DS.

I think I'll buy one to replace my original 3DS just for the extra shoulder buttons and analog pad. After going through a few hoops (due to limited availability) to get the add-on analog/trigger peripheral, I never used it by default because of the bulky, add-on nature of the peripheral.

With regards to the updated specs; obviously there will be 100% BC, which is great, but having games that require the new hardware essentially splits the market, so I don't see too many games taking full advantage of that unless they do some sort of high spec/regular spec visual option, which I just don't see doing too well for the general Nintendo audience unless the games detected the updated hardware automatically and made the option invisible.

Who knows? Maybe that's exactly what they'll do.

Updated 3D display with presumably better angle will also be greatly appreciated. Resolution upgrade?

If the c stick and l2 r2 buttons are there for gc emulation/massive amount of porting i'm totally buying this thing.

This is the same as the game boy colour, I imagine there weren't that many people on the internet in the late 90s to complain about this. It surprises me to see so many people surprised, it isn't the first time Nintendo does this.

I will not upgrade unless a game I really want is made for it, like a Wario Land or a Metroid.
I think this means there may not be a real new handheld till 2017 or even 2018.