Sales its definitely going to do either good or decent. Increase YoY? Nobody thinks its going to increase, its Japan only this year and besides that region will be down as well. I dont think anybody is that crazy, but i will say this.

3DS Sales WW 2014 are projected between 7mil-8mil. I think cuz of the announcement of N3DS Western sales could potentially lose 400-600k sold, but make that up in japan and more.

As for 2015 before the announcement i would of said because of the decline we will see around 4.5mil. Butttttt now i believe 3ds sales wont decline, in fact depending on wat Software is put out next year my early predictions are this...

2015 Sales

4.5mil No new 3DS

7mil (Wat im expecting)

9-10mil (only, and only if SW has a ton of support, unlike this year)

Splitting the user base looks like a reason good enough for some hate, particularly from the existing user base being shafted.

But the fact is we don't know if they are really spliting the user base or like in previous device life cycles this will only affect a handful of games.  If it turns out to be a DSi or WiiMotionPlus or N64 expansion pack or 64DD or Super Famicom Satelliview type of split then a lot of loud people are crying over literally nothing. If it turns out more along the lines of Famicom Disk Drive... then you have beef.

No hate here, i'm thrilled!

Really? How odd. I'm pretty excited for it!

Mainly because I've been using my fiancée's shiny turquoise 3DS, and I've rather wanted my own.

AND NAO I HAZ REEZUN!

Yes, it could be like a DSi, or a WiiMote Plus. But in this case they'll be almost unused features. Making the games scalable, and just requiring the optional Circle Pad Pro on old models for games that in the new ones use both analog sticks, while allowing games that just use the higher computing power, but other features like the 2nd stick just as option, on the new models to run with tuned down settings on the older ones, would be the best solution by far, getting the most from the new HW without pissing off old users in any way. I hope for Ninty that this will actually be their policy, otherwise it would be the 2nd annoying blunder in new 3DS range models after equipping the 2DS with just a mono speaker (at least the phone output is still stereo, but this avaricious additional saving was stupid and unnecessary after the big saving 2DS gets doing without 3D screen and hinged case).
Ninty hasn't any problem of excessive production costs, it has oes of Wii U not taking off and 3DS slightly declining, so it should focus on maximising the positive effects of new SKUs, restilings, new versions and what not, and avoid unnecessarily cutting corners.

em, I wouldn't call it hate exactly, but, for people who like got a 3DS of any type the last few months, and those who are going to get it and learn after some weeks or days that the ''new 3DS'' is coming out, well... it is not funny, at all!!

Of course there's hate. When you buy a new console, you do so with the assumption that it will have a certain lifespan. I bought a 3DS XL about a year ago. Had I known this was coming, I would've waited for this instead! Given that I NEED xenoblade on a handheld, I'll end up losing a fair bit of money in the upgrade. If they offered some kind of official upgrade service where you can given them your 3DS and pay a fee to upgrade to the new one, then it'd all be fine. But I somehow doubt they will!

Because this is a sleazy decision which attempts  to make nintendo fans buy multiple 3ds.

Had Nintendo announced a completely new console I would have been fine with it despite how recently the 3ds came out. Instead they made an inbetween which already has a major exclusive game. And guess what, a year or two after we buy the new 3ds nintendo will reveal the actual 3ds successor.

If the hardware can't handle the games they want to make they should either use prepherials or wait to launch the games next generation.

Apparently people REALLY hate keeping their games library when they get a new console :-/

There must be two sizeable group on this as Sony MS get a llot of criticism for not having released backward compatible consoles... But people understand why this happened (and Sony usually goes pretty far to release some form of backward compatible machine... But they learned it can be too costly.