now I dont have to update to 4.5 myself.
I can tell you that I opened my Mario Kart 7 edition I received from amazon today and it a is 4.3.0-10E firmware.I remember reading that the Mario Kart 7 Bundle came with 4.5. Can someone confirm that this is still true? Cause I'll just buy that model, and sell the Mario Kart 7 Code, since I stopped playing that game really.
It's visible on the outside of the box on the top. I'll edit this post with a pic in a bit.So are serial numbers visible on/through the box? Or do you need to open the box to get to it?
My experience: Bought and returned 2 blue and 1 red 3ds xl's from several targets during Black Friday. Took the lowest serial remaining every time and had no luck. All the targets i went to had blues with serial sw1335xx and reds with 1275xx or above by the time I got there. All three i opened had fw 6.1x (FYI, they all had copyright 2012 also). I Got tired of going to targets so I went to A few other stores to see if they had any. Best buy had similarly high numbers. Saw that sears had a blue with serial sw1079xx, then I went to Walmart and they had a bunch of blues that were in the sw12xx range and reds that were in the sw11xx range. After reading about other ppls lcuk with these lower numbers, I ended up picking one of the reds, sw1174x, at Walmart because I got a price match for the 149$ price...opened it in the car and it came with fw 4.4x, Finally!!
Short story, there are no guarantees but there's a good chance with reds that are sw11xx or under and blues sw12xx or under. Also, its best to go to stores that wouldnt be most ppls first stop for buying consoles, this was a "smaller" Walmart than most. Sears' probably dont sell many either. And for those who were curious, the targets I went to had no problems with me returning open boxes and I had to do a little convincing with the price match at Walmart because they said "no, it's too late" at first. Hope that helps.
He said from several Targets, I doubt he returned 3 opened 3DS's to the same Target.So you mean to tell me they let u return 3 opened 3ds sorry I don't buy this
FYI only a Blue or Red 3DS XL model will have a chance of being <= 4.5.0 in North America. There is no chance for a Zelda bundle, a black model. A white/pink model may have a chance but I'm not sure.The XL i picked up at walmart last night, already had 6.1 on it. Decided to take it back and try my luck at a zelda bundle at target.. no luck on that.
i settled for another black xl with sw40 series numbers =(
The guy who opened the display at target was a bit annoyed when i asked to check all the boxes. He said they where "all from the same batch"..
You guys seem to be pretty lucky being able to take your time to inspect each console.. The employees seem to be like "what the he11 is this guy doing, they are all the same." with me lol
I ended up buying the zelda game separate (they sold out of the bundle, but i wanted the game anyways) and updated just for the hell of it to see what the eshop looks like. (figured since its over a v6 firmware, probably wont make a difference at that point)
Hopefully someday the developers will crack the 6 series firmware.