holy crap at the people here not knowing how graphic engines work
And lol at the comparissions to apple. Each iteration of the iphone is not a revision, it's the next model. They can do stuff like upscale the resolution of old stuff if the apps update accordingly and because the newer iphone would be more poerwful.
None of this was ever going to be true of the 3DS XL. It's a revision of existing hardware that acts as a response to previous complaints (screen size, battery life) without significantly increasing the price. What did people seriously expect? a system that costed up to something 100 bucks more JUST to have the games at a bigger resolution? and for Nintendo to somehow update all previous 3DS games to display properly? and for the upcoming games to support both?
this never happened in a revision of a system, ever.