As I recently replied to our
review thread on MaxConsole, and have mentioned a few times in the GW update thread over the last few months, the following points, which I will quote here for all to rant over.
You are correct
What most people don't seem to understand is that 70% of customers purchase flashcarts from flea markets, small gaming stores and those people never visit a forum, or even know a place like maxconsole or gbatemp exists, or that there is CFW, or other options, or guides, etc.
The next 20% visit flashcart websites, order online, and again only view the video tutorials and reviews on the webshop site, not knowing again there is site like us out there, infact flashcart webshops are so cheap they copy/paste our Stargate review, without of course linking to us, so not to lose a customer, and keep them roped in, some even 'sell roms' via a 'coupon code system' you get when buying from their site, to their own filehost'er without ads, etc -- not sure how big 'N' has not shut them down yet, only targeting chaosgamez which was great for best links without ad crap.
The last 10% that purchase flashcarts, are ones that visit forums like us and other sites, and do their research and decide what is best option, own multiple 3ds's, like to have one max. to the top with homebrew, emulators, out of region roms, installed cfw, and another one plain on latest firmware with legit carts, and plug&play system like StarGate or previously Sky3DS that has less chance of online bans, even if they lose region-free.
So when it comes to market, the business end pushes for that big 70% and some of that 20%, and tiny part spills over to support the 10% with cheat codes, custom emulators, loading of 3ds roms from ds menu, and other features added over time slowly to flashcart, but the main focus always will be on plug&play, latest firmware, no nand changes, and direct 3ds loading, even if it means losing out on some nice options, sadly that is business and nothing more, you can hate it or love it, depending on what your 3ds needs are, just remember if you reading this you are in the informed elite 10% class that can make up their own mind and decide on your options.
(Ranting over) -- (Thanks)