Nintendo drops 3DS price around the world and announces release dates for Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/27284
The Nintendo 3DS retail price will decrease in several regions.
In Japan, the price will drop by 10,000 yen. This brings the price of the handheld from 25,000 yen to 15,000 yen effective August 11.
In North America, the 3DS will be priced at $169.99, effective on August 12, 2011.
The European retail price is set by the individual retailers, but the trade price has been dropped by around a third.
Australia will also see a price drop on August 12. Originally, the handheld was priced at $349.95. It will now be priced at $249.95.
Nintendo's financial report states that the price cuts are due to lower sales than were expected at this point for the console, and the markdown is to accelerate market penetration before the holiday season at the end of the year when more 3DS games will be available.
Only 830,000 3DS units have been sold in North America thus far, and the company lost around $485 million in the previous financial quarter (April - June).
Nintendo also went on to announce that the upcoming Super Mario 3D Land (formerly referred to as Super Mario) will be released this November with Mario Kart 7 (formerly Mario Kart) following closely behind in December. Kid Icarus: Uprising has been given a Holiday release date.
Nintendocurrently hasno plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.
Honestly, it would be nice if they stick to that. It would be a treat for those actually loyal enough to pick up a 3DS early one rather than wait for a price drop.
However, the first fiscal year quarter of the 3DS must have motivated Nintendo to take drastic pricing action now.
Honestly, it would be nice if they stick to that. It would be a treat for those actually loyal enough to pick up a 3DS early one rather than wait for a price drop.QuoteNintendocurrently hasno plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.
Nintendo and their "No plans!" Aargh. I'm sure everyone has seen this language recently, right?
People are predicting that the 3DS will cost £130 here. I guarantee that it will be higher than that.What is the current cost of a DSi XL? That's what its dropping down to here price wise.
There's one part that has me curious...
"These games...are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost."
I wonder what they mean by updated versions. I can easily see them releasing the games early with missing VC functionality (such as save states, etc.) that would be incorporated when the full version goes retail. They don't mention updates anywhere else, though, so it's hard to say what they'll do.
A comment on Ars Technica brought up an interesting idea, buy 3DS next week at a retailer that honors price matching sales/price drops within 2 weeks of purchase and get 20 free games and the price drop. It's like getting a 3DS for less than $100.http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=35188.msg688189#msg688189
Holy smokes! I'm 100% happy I bought mine at launch, and have been having fun with a lot of the titles many have disregarded... even Dream Trigger (rented through GameFly), once you fall into the rhythm of it, gets pretty cool and addicting. So the 20 free games offer is wicked cool. Will be really curious to see how this affects the sales numbers.Hopefully Mainstream news will pick up this story and it will move product.
Holy smokes! I'm 100% happy I bought mine at launch, and have been having fun with a lot of the titles many have disregarded... even Dream Trigger (rented through GameFly), once you fall into the rhythm of it, gets pretty cool and addicting. So the 20 free games offer is wicked cool. Will be really curious to see how this affects the sales numbers.Hopefully Mainstream news will pick up this story and it will move product.
lol, I listen to that in the morning on the way to work, NPRer but anyone seen me on twitter knows that. I didn't hear it on there but, then I had seen tweets about it.Holy smokes! I'm 100% happy I bought mine at launch, and have been having fun with a lot of the titles many have disregarded... even Dream Trigger (rented through GameFly), once you fall into the rhythm of it, gets pretty cool and addicting. So the 20 free games offer is wicked cool. Will be really curious to see how this affects the sales numbers.Hopefully Mainstream news will pick up this story and it will move product.
I did hear about the price drop on the radio (NPR morning edition) on the way into work this morning. But they didn't mention anything about the free games until I read it here. The free games definatly make the whole 30% drop easier to swallow.
I'm actually wonder what this means in term of the Wii U pricing.
I'll be interested to see how Sony responds to this with the Vita. Allegedly, they're already taking on a significant loss with the Vita priced at $250, and they successfully managed to scare Nintendo into dropping the 3DS price. I don't see how Sony could price this device any lower right out of the gate, and it's become the significantly more expensive machine now.
Anyone else think this was a bit of an over-reaction? Yeah, the 3DS was over-priced, but $100 price drop is steep. IMHO, the biggest thing hurting 3DS sales was the software lineup. This big of a drop to me is a sign of Nintendo saying, "We can't sell you on the system's potential, so we'll just make it a bargain."
Clearly, Mario Kart 7 is in competition with Windows 7 ;)So is Mario Kart 7 going to have the Metro UI with Live tiles and tight integration with Twitter and Facebook? (Mango should be out by then)
Super Mario 3D Land could be a tie-in with its Super Mario Bros. 3 roots, though I suspect it's also to reduce confusion as you said.
I actually wonder if they'll end up changing at least the Mario Kart title for the US release. The announcements seemed rushed, and I wonder how much consultation was done outside of Japan.
I'm a little upset by this, since I was banking on there not being a price cut for at least a year and bought one to prepare for the upcoming releases and don't currently have any 3DS games. But I guess I was taking a gamble when I did that, and given the slow sales I probably should have waited a little longer to see what happened.
I really am surprised by this though, I figured Nintendo would at least wait until the holidays to see how well it sells then before they dropped the price. The cut is also more than I expected, at most I figured it would be $200. They must be desperate if they are not only dropping the price this much, but even offering free games to those who already bought one at the inflated price. I have no idea what their plan is, though they were in a tight spot for sure. They definitely made mistakes, most noticeably the admittedly high price, but I still think they should have stayed the course for a bit longer.
Remember, these are NES Virtual Console titles... NES games aren't normally part of the 3DS VC lineup-- they're otherwise only available on 3DS as 3D Classics. The logical conclusion is that these are upcoming 3D Classics titles that aren't ready yet, and the updates will simply be the completed 3D Classics releases.I thought about that, but they're clearly distinguishing them as Virtual Console versions, not 3D Classics. Not to mention the game selection - how do you add depth to Donkey Kong Jr.?
I'm a little upset by this, since I was banking on there not being a price cut for at least a year and bought one to prepare for the upcoming releases and don't currently have any 3DS games. But I guess I was taking a gamble when I did that, and given the slow sales I probably should have waited a little longer to see what happened.
I really am surprised by this though, I figured Nintendo would at least wait until the holidays to see how well it sells then before they dropped the price. The cut is also more than I expected, at most I figured it would be $200. They must be desperate if they are not only dropping the price this much, but even offering free games to those who already bought one at the inflated price. I have no idea what their plan is, though they were in a tight spot for sure. They definitely made mistakes, most noticeably the admittedly high price, but I still think they should have stayed the course for a bit longer.
They still have public perception to worry about though. I hope that this kind of price cut doesn't cause people to view the product as worthless.
Even if you aren't happy the selection of freebies yourself, come August 12 there will be plenty of collectors out there who missed out and will be willing to pay more than the $250 you originally paid for the exclusive content. You can just sell your current 3DS for a profit on eBay then buy a new one at the new lower price. You've won either way.That isn't a viable option, because then all of my downloaded software, records, settings, and other data goes with it. It wouldn't be worth it in the long run.
I meant potential 3DS buyers. Some people might wonder what is wrong with the product that the price is being dropped so soon and by so much.They still have public perception to worry about though. I hope that this kind of price cut doesn't cause people to view the product as worthless.No way. The Ambassador Program is more than enough damage control to offset most of the negativity. And the new low price will take care of the rest. Mark my words.
And who would care most about VC games? You guessed it: the early adopters. The Nintendo faithful. The hard-core fans.
Hardcore Nintendo fans would be the most likely to already own original copies of old games.
I meant potential 3DS buyers. Some people might wonder what is wrong with the product that the price is being dropped so soon and by so much.
Doesn't that also mean we're the most likely to buy these games when they become available for purchase, so Nintendo should offer something we're less likely to buy?
Doesn't that also mean we're the most likely to buy these games when they become available for purchase, so Nintendo should offer something we're less likely to buy?That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If Nintendo is giving away for free items I would likely buy anyway, then this is a good gift. If they give me something I may not have wanted, this is not a good gift and I may still feel slighted at the big price drop.
Your mom didn't know what a 3DS was and thus was not going to buy one anyway making her irrelevant. Not, you know, in life but regarding 3DS.
My Mom of all people brought up the 3DS with me asking if I had heard about the price drop. She had heard that it was because that the 3D was making people dizzy and wasn't going over as well as Nintendo had hoped.Fucking tabloids and sensationalist bullshit media (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/3721046/Nintendo-slashes-price-of-3D-console-after-claims-it-makes-gamers-feel-dizzy-and-sick.html)
:P I like the Blue.So do I, but the 3DS Aqua colour is not blue. It's more like a turquoise or some such blue/green, which makes it ugly.
Nintendo is offering NES/GBA games because it affects profits far less than offering eshop credit that could be used on new games that may or may not be 1st party which complicates that further. Old games sales are practically pure profit since they recouped the cost of development years ago.Yeah, it's pretty obvious they are doing this since it costs them next to nothing, but that doesn't mean it's something I want.
I believe I read somewhere (in the many places that's been running this story) that the GBA titles won't be transferable.Or at least, not until they become available on the eShop.
I was looking at it from Nintendo's perspective.Doesn't that also mean we're the most likely to buy these games when they become available for purchase, so Nintendo should offer something we're less likely to buy?That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If Nintendo is giving away for free items I would likely buy anyway, then this is a good gift. If they give me something I may not have wanted, this is not a good gift and I may still feel slighted at the big price drop.
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone WarsDo you know what is the problem with these games? They all have versions on other systems (except maybe RE: Mercenaries, I'm not very familiar with it). Currently the 3DS offers no unique experiences, and until it gets some, it isn't going to go anywhere.
Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions
PilotWings Resort
Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
