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Nintendo hints smaller New 3DS may finally launch in North America

Back in August 2014, Nintendo unveiled a pair of new, greatly improved 3DS consoles packed with more power, extra buttons and a secondary analogue stick.

Unfortunately, the big teases at Nintendo only made the New 3DS and 3DS XL consoles (along with their fancy SNES-inspired design language) available in their Japanese homeland.

Now, almost a year after it was announced, following a UK launch in February and the XL model arriving Stateside, Ninty’s smaller handheld could also be prepping a bid to crack North America.

When asked about the base model by Kotaku, the Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Amie said North American gamers should “stay tuned” for news of “special SKUs”.

The Nintendo executive explained how the XL version of the console had been more popular in Japan, and hence launched first in the U.S., but also acknowledged westerners had expressed a desire for the smaller device.

We’ve certainly taken note of all of the readers and consumers that expressed desire for the base model,” he said.

“Not going to make any promises but, you know, I would suggest to your readers that they stay tuned and maybe some special SKUs might show up.”

Related:
New Nintendo 3DS vs Nintendo 3DS

While Fils-Amie does offer the “no promises” caveat and claims “we have nothing to announce,” it would be a bit rude to drop such a hint and not follow through, wouldn’t it?

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