Topic: 3DS MAJOR price drop incoming + tons of free games for early adopters?

[noname2200]

Good point, I hadn't thought of that step. Still, I have a hard time imagining that Nintendo would bother to check with retailers and compare that list with the folks who've logged on to the eShop before the deadline, especially since *technically* all transmitting the games costs them is the few cent(s) of bandwidth.

Then again, penny-pinching isn't exactly unprecedented for Nintendo...

[gbuell]

Haven't you ever heard the saying that "the customer is always right"?

Sometimes I want to murder whoever came up with that terrible, terrible phrase.

It's true though. It doesn't matter how fair or logical the customer is, he's not going to give you his money if you don't give him what he wants.

In the context of all the 3DS owners who did give Nintendo $249 because, presumably, they wanted a 3DS, I don't see how that phrase is relevant.

[UncleBob]

Good point, I hadn't thought of that step. Still, I have a hard time imagining that Nintendo would bother to check with retailers and compare that list with the folks who've logged on to the eShop before the deadline, especially since *technically* all transmitting the games costs them is the few cent(s) of bandwidth.

Then again, penny-pinching isn't exactly unprecedented for Nintendo...

It's not like some Nintendo intern would have to dig though stacks of papers to check the serial number.

It's simple coding.

X = 3DS Purchase Date
Y = 3DS Initial eShop Connection Date
IF X < 08/12/2011 AND Y < 08/12/2011 THEN AMBASSADOR=TRUE

All this information is stored digitally and can be collected via the right type of programing.

[noname2200]

In the context of all the 3DS owners who did give Nintendo $249 because, presumably, they wanted a 3DS, I don't see how that phrase is relevant.

Easy. Said people, myself included, would be pissed for paying an extra $80 for the exact same product, i.e. getting "punished" for buying in early. It's illogical and unfair, but also basic human psychology.

The classic example of this is when a rich guy tells a random crowd of people to line up in front of him so he can give each of them $50. He gives everybody in line ahead of you $50, but when your turn comes he apologizes profusely for not having enough cash on hand after all, and so he only gives you $20. Logically, you have no reason to be upset: you just got a free $20 bill, so yay! Of course, the more natural reaction is to think you just got stiffed. After all, everyone else got more than you did!

It's obviously not a perfect analogy for this situation, but it serves to illustrate the basic point: fair or not, early adopters would be pissed at getting "suckered" into paying more. Nintendo obviously knows this too, or they wouldn't be bothering to give away, what, $100+ worth of games, some of which will sell very, very well later on.

And just to bring it all home, a customer who feels slighted is less likely to be a customer in the future. Hence, "the customer is always right (even when he's not)."

[noname2200]

It's not like some Nintendo intern would have to dig though stacks of papers to check the serial number.

It's simple coding.

When I said "bother" I didn't mean that the task was too hurculean to do. I meant that the number of people who are going to take advantage is probably pretty small, the cost to Nintendo of letting them slide isn't particularly high, and the potential public backlash/loss of goodwill might work against the purpose of the program (Can't you already read the Kotaku headlines?).

Which is not to say they won't do it anyways, but I think the odds are slightly better-than-even that they won't. We'll find out very soon, though!

[Adrock]

I didn't have my box when I went back to AT&T. I had my receipt and they scanned that. I don't think that's the same bar code. I'm not sure Nintendo can penalize users for a store's own policy. Additionally, I'm not sure how they'd pull this off by way of serial number. Eligibility for the games seems tied strictly to whether one connects to the eshop.

[UncleBob]

I didn't have my box when I went back to AT&T. I had my receipt and they scanned that. I don't think that's the same bar code. I'm not sure Nintendo can penalize users for a store's own policy. Additionally, I'm not sure how they'd pull this off by way of serial number. Eligibility for the games seems tied strictly to whether one connects to the eshop.

Trust me - any major retailer scans the serial number for the system.  I have access to a neat little program that lets me view this information.

As for how they'd pull it off by serial number - that'd all be dependant on how Nintendo's entire system is set up.  Does the system send the serial number (or some other unique identifier that's tied to the serial number) when it connect to the eShop?

I'm not saying Nintendo *would* do this.  I'm just stating it's one possibility.

[BlackNMild2k1]

The *only* potential issue I can see with price adjustments is, in my experience, the retailer will "return" your 3DS (at the old price) then "resell" the same 3DS (at the new price).

When they return/resell, they'll scan the serial number.

Ideally, this should flag to Nintendo that you didn't pay the full price for your system.

It's up to Nintendo if this would then render your system ineligible for the free games.

When does the ambassador program go live?
And I hope Nintendo wouldn't block all the 3DS' sold in the next 2 weeks and connected online as it is obviously the free games that prompted those sales. If they weren't offering the free games, I wouldn't even be interested in a 3DS yet and am more than happy to wait for a potential redesign (should one come) or more games that actually warrant a purchase from me.

[noname2200]

When does the ambassador program go live?
And I hope Nintendo wouldn't block all the 3DS' sold in the next 2 weeks and connected online as it is obviously the free games that prompted those sales. If they weren't offering the free games, I wouldn't even be interested in a 3DS yet and am more than happy to wait for a potential redesign (should one come) or more games that actually warrant a purchase from me.

From my understanding, any 3DS that accessed the eShop on or before August 11 qualifies, any that accessed on the 12th or later will not. The first batch of free games won't come until September 1, though.

[UncleBob]

The *only* potential issue I can see with price adjustments is, in my experience, the retailer will "return" your 3DS (at the old price) then "resell" the same 3DS (at the new price).

When they return/resell, they'll scan the serial number.

Ideally, this should flag to Nintendo that you didn't pay the full price for your system.

It's up to Nintendo if this would then render your system ineligible for the free games.

When does the ambassador program go live?
And I hope Nintendo wouldn't block all the 3DS' sold in the next 2 weeks and connected online as it is obviously the free games that prompted those sales. If they weren't offering the free games, I wouldn't even be interested in a 3DS yet and am more than happy to wait for a potential redesign (should one come) or more games that actually warrant a purchase from me.

I'm not saying any 3DS sold between the announcement and the drop.  I'm saying it would be possible for them to block any 3DS sold between the announcement and the drop, then *returned/rebought* after the drop.

[Adrock]

It's most likely possible. I just don't see it happening. That's the store's policy and Nintendo can't control that. Also, when they price match competitor's prices, isn't that the store taking the "loss" (technically not a loss since they got the sale as opposed to no sale)? Would the same apply with the manufacturer dropping the price and the store matching it? I imagine that stores institute these policies to encourage customers to return. That said, I feel like price matching would be on them, not the manufacturer of the product. Consumers, then, would be taking advantage of the system, not Nintendo.

[UncleBob]

It's most likely possible. I just don't see it happening. That's the store's policy and Nintendo can't control that. Also, when they price match competitor's prices, isn't that the store taking the "loss" (technically not a loss since they got the sale as opposed to no sale)? Would the same apply with the manufacturer dropping the price and the store matching it? I imagine that stores institute these policies to encourage customers.

The store accepts the return from the original sale, then sales the inventory at the new, lower price.

Typically, these types of price cuts are accompanied by the supplier giving the stores a dollar amount for any of the inventory purchased at the higher price, but sold at the lower price.  So, generally, Nintendo will be taking the loss on anyone who does a return/rebuy for the price adjustment.

I'm not saying there will be a significant amount of people doing this or that there will be a significant loss for Nintendo/the retailer.  I'm merely pointing out that the plan of buying it before the price drop and trying to get the free games *may* not work for a very realistic reason - and that anyone who's considering taking advantage of this (myself included) should be aware of that potential risk.

[Adrock]

Understood. I'm still on the fence because I know I don't necessarily want one for anything other than a good deal and knowing that I would most likely purchase one in the future unless I absolutely knew a 3DS player was being released which clearly I don't (and it seems to good to be true and nintendo would have to find a way to make that work). With an inevitable purchase, I'm between deciding to purchase now or purchase later.

I'm considering this with the assumption that the whole Kansas City Shuffle buy/return/rebuy may or may not work. I think I'd be okay either way though I'd certainly prefer getting the games AND price drop.

I'm still siding that the switcheroo will work. Nintendo can't assume people are actively doing that. If little Suzi, unaware of the Ambassador Program, gets a 3DS from her grandmother and gets a message from Nintendo inviting her to download FREE GAIMEZz, but her mom does the price match, that certainly sucks for little Suzi.

The way Nintendo phrased the offer (connecting to the eshop before August 12) puts them in a tough position should they choose to not honor it if someone beats the system by price matching. Nintendo was not specific about people paying $250. Someone who purchased a used 3DS should be eligible as well.

[apdude]

I'm all for the "get what you can" mentality, but realize you are trying to "game" the system and take advantage of Nintendo's goodwill gesture because you've justified this by saying an $80 price drop is not good enough and that Nintendo owes you 20 games as well.

Good luck to those who try, but if they do end up blocking those who do this don't expect to find sympathy from me.

[Chozo Ghost]

I'm all for the "get what you can" mentality, but realize you are trying to "game" the system and take advantage of Nintendo's goodwill gesture because you've justified this by saying an $80 price drop is not good enough and that Nintendo owes you 20 games as well.

Good luck to those who try, but if they do end up blocking those who do this don't expect to find sympathy from me.

I agree. It isn't fair to the early adopters who this whole thing is specifically intended for. I hope Nintendo is able to block it for those who don't deserve the free games.

[Mataata]

Nintendo deserves every cent of my 250, so I'm not angry at all with the price drop. It's really nice of them to hand out all the free stuff, too.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm all for the "get what you can" mentality, but realize you are trying to "game" the system and take advantage of Nintendo's goodwill gesture because you've justified this by saying an $80 price drop is not good enough and that Nintendo owes you 20 games as well.

Good luck to those who try, but if they do end up blocking those who do this don't expect to find sympathy from me.

I agree. It isn't fair to the early adopters who this whole thing is specifically intended for. I hope Nintendo is able to block it for those who don't deserve the free games.

[alegoicoe]

I think  the internet is over reacting to nintendo's 3ds price cut, there are sites like ign putting articles like nintendo is doom and i also went to gonintendo.com and saw another like it, this is like all over 2006 again when the industry and the media declared the Wii dead since the start of the systems life and turns out that it kicked major ass, the media is a good thing, but some times they just over do it.

[Spinnzilla]

Maybe I missed it, but when are the NES and GBA download available?

[TJ Spyke]

The NES ones will be available starting September 1 and the GBA ones sometime by the end of the year, they haven't been more specific.

[Oblivion]

I'm all for the "get what you can" mentality, but realize you are trying to "game" the system and take advantage of Nintendo's goodwill gesture because you've justified this by saying an $80 price drop is not good enough and that Nintendo owes you 20 games as well.

Good luck to those who try, but if they do end up blocking those who do this don't expect to find sympathy from me.

I agree. It isn't fair to the early adopters who this whole thing is specifically intended for. I hope Nintendo is able to block it for those who don't deserve the free games.

Oh yes, Nintendo is like the video game CIA where they know how much you paid for your 3DS. All I see is "whine whine whine".

[BranDonk Kong]

The best part of this is I only paid $125 for my 3DS (brand new) to begin with, and I still get 20 free games.

[leahsdad]

I'm not saying there will be a significant amount of people doing this or that there will be a significant loss for Nintendo/the retailer. 

Actually, I'm curious about how many people will try this, and whether that number would be significant enough in any way for Nintendo or a big box retailer to police this.  If you consider how low the rate is for people to connect their consoles or game devices to the internet (less than %50 across all devices, I heard, even Xbox), it's probably fairly low for the 3DS, even if the current 3DS "population" is early adopters.  And also, just how many people will even hear about the ambassador program?  What if you don't read gaming websites?  What if you don't regularly check Nintendo's website?  What if you, like me, hardly ever read your spotpass messages, if at all? 

And then, on top of that, how many 3DS owners are retro gamers and place value on those old NES and GBA games? 


I think if we knew some more information, like for example, how many copies of Link's Awakening have been sold on 3DS VC, then we might get a clearer picture.  But since that information is closely guarded by Nintendo, and always will be, we'll never know.

[TJ Spyke]

A lot of mainstream websites were reporting the news too, not just gaming sites.

[Adrock]

Even so, and especially so, how many people are going to attempt to circumvent the system by taking advantage of a retailer's money back guarantee/policy using knowledge of an upcoming price drop? That's a pretty convoluted scheme just for the sake of saving $80 and receiving 20 old titles, many of which anyone who's even mulling this over have probably already played/completed.

My affinity towards sweet deals knows no bounds so while I'm currently undecided, I will most likely engage in said wheelings and dealings.