Nintendo has confirmed that they have no future plans on releasing the standard New 3DS system in North America, nor did they ever.
During an interview with Nintendo Life during IndieCade East, Nintendo of America’s senior marketing and licensing manager, Damon Baker, said they wanted to make differentiation between the systems easier for North Americans.
“Look, the face plates [available for the standard version] are super cool, but we’re a different market,” he said. “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 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. “We weren’t going to win the core audience 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.”
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