Topic: RE: Possible Nintendo DS Price/Release Date?

[NewsBot]

EBWorld and Gamestop websites list tentative DS price and shipping date.

Both EBWorld.com and Gamestop.com have added the Nintendo DS to their product lists.  They currently have the system listed at a price of $199.99 with a ship date of 11/29/2004.  Games are currently listed at $49.99, the same price as most new GameCube titles.

Both sites offer the disclaimer that "these prices and dates are subject to change", but early speculation suggests that the price will indeed land somewhere in the $150-$200 range.  As for the release date, Nintendo itself has stated that the DS will be available by the end of 2004.

[Felis Demens CCXXI]

Re: Jon's comment...

Tuesday = Thursday?  That's the day Turkey Day is always on...  

[NWR_Lindy]

Thanks for catching that.  My fault for not reading the instruction manual for the calendar I just bought  

silks

[jasonditz]

IIRC, the games were speculated to be in the $20-$30 range.

[Perfect Cell]

Exactly supposidly the games were going to be cheaper or equal to GBA games...  

I also hope Picto Chat comes with the DS... Its a nice idea but too litle to charge full retail price on it, much better to include it with the package

[Bill Aurion]

That's why Ninty is thinking about doing it... ^_^

[ruby_onix]

If the games are $50, then Nintendo will be handing a critical advantage to Sony and the PSP.

Everyone knows that GBA game profits are slim. Sony has said that they aren't going to be able to sell the hardware at a loss, if they want to keep the game prices in line with expected standards.

If DS games are more expensive, then the PSP's games will obviously be less expensive, which adds up to savings for the consumer, leading them to do otherwise crazy things like drop $450 on a PSP. Or, the PSP games might raise in price (and profits) too, which would give Sony exactly what they need to come down from that unacceptably bad price point.

At any rate, at least it's good to see some source pointing out that the DS ain't gonna be $450, just for all those people who you think should know better, but don't. (Just earlier today my older brother came over, asking if I had heard the amazing news that Sony had unveiled their PSP at E3...)

[KDR_11k]

They're saying 200 because that's the highest probable amount. So if someone preorders they don't have to up the price afterwards.

[Ian Sane]

I'm not going to pay what I paid for a Gamecube for a portable.  If that's the price I'm not buying at launch unless there's a really amazing killer app and so far I haven't seen one.  That's not a knock on the DS by the way; we just haven't really been shown anything beyond tech demos.

But I'm also not going to assume that EB or Gamestop are in position of secret knowledge regarding the DS price and launch date.  They want to sell pre-orders ASAP so they're taking a wild guess.  Nintendo's not stupid.  They know people won't pay console prices for these things.  Think about how expensive console game prices are in Europe and Australia.  If Nintendo had higher North American prices they would have REALLY high prices in those countries.  Portable games are virtually all they sell in those areas and it would be foolish to completely lose those markets.

"If DS games are more expensive, then the PSP's games will obviously be less expensive, which adds up to savings for the consumer, leading them to do otherwise crazy things like drop $450 on a PSP."

That's a very important issue.  One of the reasons the PSX was more popular than the N64 was because the games were always cheaper.  It's not the only reason but it was one that came up whenever I asked someone why they chose a the Playstation over the N64.

[jonoas]

I'm from New Zealand where prices are about equal to Australia and i've gotta pay $50 US for GBA games. it works out cheaper importing games from the states than buying them in my home country. Hence $50 sounds somewhat reasonable to ppl outside of America.

[StRaNgE]

at 149 i'll be picking up  a DS at launch. 200 well, i might wait a bit and see what happens.
if games are 20-30 i'll buy   quite a few. at 40 + i'll probably just buy more cube games instead.

[ssj4_android]

I think they put this price up monday or tuesday.

[DrZoidberg]

Quote
Think about how expensive console game prices are in Europe and Australia. If Nintendo had higher North American prices they would have REALLY high prices in those countries. Portable games are virtually all they sell in those areas and it would be foolish to completely lose those markets.

and then think about the angsting the PAL forum crew will do, and geez, we do enough about PAL prices allready, but to angst about three systems worth of high prices? umpossible! more liek UUUUUUUUUUUUUMF

[jasonditz]

Its obviously just a guess from these companies, Nintendo has not announced pricing on systems or games.
If the games really were $50, I probably would not buy a DS at launch though...

[nickmitch]

I expected the DS to be $150 and games to be $35-40.
I sure do hope they ain't right.