Rumor: Nintendo Set to Announce New 3DS for North America, Release Date in February

And it's about time.

Ahead of tomorrow's scheduled 9am ET Nintendo Direct, word has leaked that Nintendo will announce the New 3DS (and its bigger brother, the New 3DS XL) for North America. The info comes via a leaked Gamestop poster. According to the leak, the release date for the New 3DS is Februaru 13th.

The two new models are thinner and faster, but more obvious to the naked eye, is that they incorporate two add-ons. Sporting a button sized C stick as well as two more shoulder (Z) buttons, the New 3DS incorporates the Circle Pad Pro add-on (finally). It also has a built-in NFC reader, which means that amiibo figures will work natively. The SD card slot is dropped in favor of a micro SD slot. The screen now carries an adaptive brightness and contrast ability (like cell and tablet screens), which should help with both battery power and varied lighting conditions. The 3DS passive 3D ability is now (hopefully) much more useful as the camera and gyros track the user's head position, making the 3D less of a sweet spot experience.

A more controversial addition is the increased CPU speed, which not only helps downloading, installing, etc. of current games, but also means that the New 3DS will have exclusives, such as the recently announced (Japan) 'Xenoblade Chronicles' port.

The New 3DS and New 3DS LL released in Japan on October 11th. 

Source: Kotaku