In a press conference this week, Nintendo announced the release of a new line of Nintendo 3DS’s with the 3DS XL.  The 3DS XL will sport screens that are 90% bigger and Nintendo claims it will have better battery life.  This move is not entirely surprising as Nintendo did a similar move with the Nintendo DSi a couple years ago.

I can honestly say this announcement solidifies my sense of buyer’s remorse for the latest Nintendo handheld.  I had my first taste when Nintendo announced the original 3DS price drop from $250 to $180. Next, was the Ambassador program.  Sure, I like getting free games, but it didn’t make me feel better about losing $70.  Now, we have the announcement of the 3DS XL.  Not only would I rather have the increased screen size, but the new XL will only cost $200.  Please don’t misread this as true bitterness; it is more like a face palm on my part.

Now, you can say many things about Nintendo, but you can never say they don’t know how to market their products.  The 3DS XL is releasing on August 19th, concurrently with New Super Mario Bros. 2.  While it does not ship with NSMB2, plan on that game flying off store shelves along with the new system.  The Nintendo 3DS XL will be available in red or blue and will ship with a 4GB SD card.  With Nintendo coming off a good showing for 3DS at E3 game-wise, it looks like this holiday will be another good time to be Nintendo.