As reported in another thread regarding the same question in "hacking" section :
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FYI :
Today, I bought a brand new blue 3DS XL in store.
I took good care to buy a 2012 copyright one.
In fact, almost all the boxes were 2012 .
Seems strange since the store I was in is quite huge and sells a lot (FNAC store in Paris, FRANCE)
Opened the box and Firmware was 6.2.0
Hopefully, this store has a great return policy.
So I went back and tried with another console... then another one...
I did try 3 blue 3DS XL with 2012 boxes and they were all provided with a recent firmware.
I finally tried a grey one and it was 4.1.0
So, it seems that Nintendo is using some old boxes they may have found in a corner to wrap brand new console systems.
A least in europe...
With Christmas season, I assume that a lot of systems will be sold and it will be harder to find old firmwares...
Be carefull when buying : even the 2012 copyright is not a 100% safe way to select a Gateway compliant system.
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I thought that it can be usefull to post this information here too....