To stay the number one handheld.

At least a certain someone is smart enough to wait for the new 3ds before releasing the exploit.

Pretty much agree with all of OP. Having a secondary device for amiibos probably wasn't ideal and they decided to revamp. Also, the new OS was obviously an important feature since they increased the CPU.

I think it's an attempt to extend the life of the 3DS

Super Smash Brothers:


- Smash attacks can much more easily be used in any direction while dashing. For example, you can dash to the right with the circle pad, while you use the second pad to immediately smash to the left. (This technique is known as pivot cancelling.)

- Aerials can be performed without risking an accidental double jump (circle pad too far up) or an accidental fast-fall (circle pad too far down) when attacking, thanks to the second pad. This is especially important considering the hectic gameplay combined with the very limited accuracy of the circle pad. Additionally, aerials can be performed in the opposite direction that your character is moving without losing momentum.

- Controller options. While the majority shields with L, there are some who uses R. At the same time, pretty much no one uses an L button to grab in any game. The new 3DS design allows shielding and grabbing to be performed with R/ZR similarly to how the Gamecube allowed Z and R.

- Amiibo.

They did it before with the DSi.

I feel like slapping myself for not seeing this coming and getting a Wii U before a 3DS.

Probably a factor of many things.

-Amiibo support is probably the one id most bet on.
-3DS patent? Yeah possible, Nintendo have been swarmed with troll patents recently and doing this would probably save them time and money in the future.
-Realised the addition of a 2nd analogue stick will help.

I guess it's basically a move to push hardware sales. They want the 3DS to be their main handheld for as long as possible (because right now they need to concentrate their software efforts on the Wii U and thus can't release a new handheld) so they decided to go with a redesigned model.

I don't get this talk about the "new" 3DS being their next gen handheld, though. I guess the name is confusing but really, it's just a redesigned 3DS with slightly faster internals. The DSi was also faster and had more RAM (and cameras, a bigger screen, an exclusive eShop with hundreds of DSi-only games, a new UI and a music player) so that was way closer to being a "new" handheld but nobody even considered it to be "next gen". I guess the name really is confusing a bit. The timing for this redesign is perfect for a late 2016 release of their actual next handheld.

Edit: Does anyone know if the screens are actually "better" on this model? As in better contrast and colors and brighter screen? Some sources say the screen is better but then only talk about the 3D.

I think it was to try stop Namco etc announcing so many Vita game in Japan potentially starting to tip the sales momentum. Now 3DS has dual analohuecand more grunt those games can also be on 3DS to help prevent defections. (Will digimon etc now remain Vita exclusive)

I have to agree, because of the way the new hardware is built. Such a shame that there are people defending this move because it has happened before with the GBC. More shame to the people defending it if it has happened before. I really REALLY don't want Sony and Microsoft to begin doing this too, as this would make buying a console early on a bad move.