Amazon.com Leaks Nintendo 3DS Redesign!

Coffee Beans

Last night I was browsing Amazon.com's video games section putting a list together of video games that were on sale.  I decided to check the 3DS games and systems, and saw that Amazon was offering a $25 3DS Game Credit when you purchase the system.  While I was getting the links for the 3DS systems, I clicked on the Aqua Blue 3DS system, and something really different stood out about its picture.  Take a look for yourself:

Image captured from Amazon.com

Amazon.com has a history of leaking products and services, before they're released and even known about.  On January 29th of this year,
Amazon.com accidentally leaked their soon-to-be announced Amazon.com Prime Video Streaming service, when they published public photos with information about the service on Amazon.com.  The photos were public for several hours and a few Amazon.com users captured screenshots of them, before they were taken down.

On February 22, Amazon.com publicly announced their new video service for Amazon.com Prime members.

As for video games, Amazon.com has a history of leaking news about video games, before publishers wished for the news to be known.  In October 2010, Amazon.com leaked news about Uncharted 3, before the game was even officially announced, when the site listed the game with a boxart placement holder.  Evidently Sony caught wind of the leak, and Amazon.com quickly removed the image and listing from their site.

Now, when I saw the 3DS image last night, I immediately did two things:  right-clicked and "saved as" on the image, which is the image above, and then I did a screen capture, pictured here:

Just click for original sized image, I didn't want to resize it from what I captured it at. 

I think it's very interesting that not only was the image for just the system itself different, but also the price of the system was not shown, and instead it had the "Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available." listing.

Nintendo of America's President, Reggie Fils-Aime, was recently asked about the likelihood of a 3DS redesign and he said, "I answer it this way.  The 3DS is our key handheld device.  It is going to be our key business driver for the balance of this year, through the holidays."

Notice that he didn't specify anything about when a 3DS redesign will happen, and he then even went further by suggesting that consumers purchase Best Buy's insurance on the product.  Now according to THIS article, the Best Buy insurance policy drops very quickly as for the percentage you get back when/if trading the system in for a new one.

With news spreading that Nintendo 3DSs are widely available in the United States and Europe, would a redesigned Nintendo 3DS help to boost sales; and if they're releasing a new 3DS system, does this mean the current Nintendo 3DS models will see price drops very soon?  I think it would be interesting...

Questions
Would a 3DS redesigned with two circle pads make you more likely to purchase the system if you haven't purchased one already, or perhaps trade your current 3DS system in for an "upgrade"?

Also, who can tell me what the individual bold letters, at the beginning of just certain words, in the story say?


For those that know the what the post is, if you're interested in the 3DS models currently available, you can see them on Amazon.com linked below: