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3DSGBA

Nintendo Introduces Ambassadors Program for 3DS

by Pedro Hernandez and Matt Walker - July 28, 2011, 1:22 am EDT
Total comments: 28 Source: (Nintendo), http://www.nintendo.com/corp/nintendo3ds/news/

Early adopters of the system in will receive lots of free goodies.

Nintendo announced that early adopters of the 3DS, who bought the system prior to the recently announced price drop, will receive 20 free games through the eShop. This initiative is called the "Ambassadors Program."

To be eligible for the free downloads, users must connect to the eShop through a wireless Internet connection before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on August 11. This will automatically register you for the Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors Program.

Beginning September 1, 10 Virtual Console NES games will be released early as free eShop downloads for Ambassadors only. When the games are released to the public as paid downloads later in the year, the updated titles can be re-downloaded free of charge. Additionally, 10 exclusive Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games will be released by the end of the year, with no current plans to make these available for normal purchase.

NES/Famicom Virtual Console titles will include:
- Super Mario Bros.
- Donkey Kong Jr.
- Balloon Fight
- Ice Climber
- The Legend of Zelda

Game Boy Advance Virtual Console titles will include:
- Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
- Mario Kart: Super Circuit
- Metroid Fusion
- WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong

3DS Price Drop to $169.99, as Great Value and New 3D Games Come Together.

Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus: Uprising Prep Nintendo 3DS for a Strong Holiday season.

REDMOND, Wash.-- Nintendo of America today announced plans to drop the suggested retail price of its portable Nintendo 3DS system to $169.99 in the United States, as new games based on some of the world’s most beloved video game franchises head to the system. The new price, down from the suggested launch price of $249.99 and effective Aug. 12, makes an outstanding value even better and sets up a strong holiday season for the system.

“For anyone who was on the fence about buying a Nintendo 3DS, this is a huge motivation to buy now,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “We are giving shoppers every incentive to pick up a Nintendo 3DS, from an amazing new price to a rapid-fire succession of great games.”

Nintendo 3DS has the strongest software lineup of any video game system this holiday season and the new price now opens up the glasses-free 3D experience to many more consumers. Building on the popularity of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, which launched June 19, the upcoming game calendar is a Who’s Who of iconic video game franchises. Star Fox 64 3D arrives on Sept. 9, followed by Super Mario 3D Land in November, Mario Kart 7in December and Kid Icarus: Uprising during the holiday season.

In addition to great games, Nintendo 3DS has a host of attractive features* that make it the must-have video game system this season:

  • The new Nintendo Video service automatically delivers short 3D videos from the worlds of music, comedy, animation and Hollywood.
  • A free application allows Netflix members with unlimited streaming plans to instantly watch TV episodes and movies streaming from Netflix.
  • The Nintendo eShop is a digital store for Nintendo 3DS owners that provides access to a wide variety of downloadable content, such as original 3D software, classic games that have been re-mastered in 3D called 3D Classics, Game Boy and Game Boy Color “Virtual Console” games in their original 2D glory, and more than 350 Nintendo DSiWare games. Visitors can also view video game trailers, screen shots and product information for games, including those available at retail locations.

Since Nintendo 3DS launched in the United States on March 27, more than 830,000 people in the U.S. alone have purchased one to enjoy 3D visuals without the need for special glasses. These Nintendo 3DS owners represent some of Nintendo’s most loyal customers, and Nintendo is rewarding them for getting in on the action early with 20 free downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop.

These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11. These users will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. The program contains two elements:

  1. Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Console games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.Donkey Kong Jr.,Balloon FightIce Climber and The Legend of Zelda, 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.
  2. By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island: Super MarioAdvance 3Mario Kart: Super CircuitMetroid FusionWarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

More details about this program will be announced in the future.

[AU] Price Drop for Nintendo 3DS

Australia and New Zealand 28 July, 2011

Nintendo announces that effective 12 August, Nintendo 3DS™ will be available for only SRP AU$249.95*. Previously Nintendo 3DS was SRP AU $349.95.

Nintendo Australia plan to offer an exclusive Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program to consumers who have purchased the Nintendo 3DS at the original launch price. The program will enable those Nintendo 3DS owners to download 10 NES™ games and 10 Game Boy™ and Game Boy Advance™ games for free from the Nintendo eShop.

These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before the price drop on 12 August. These users will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. The program contains two elements:

1. Starting 1 September, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, 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.

2. By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™ Inc.: Minigame Mania and Mario vs. Donkey Kong™. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

Nintendo 3DS offers 3D gaming without the need for special glasses and is available in two colours, Aqua Blue and Cosmos Black.

[EU] Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Programme

Nintendo has today announced a global change in the trade pricing policy of Nintendo 3DS. In Europe, this will be applicable from August 12th.

There have been times in the past when we, Nintendo, have marked down the trade prices for our video game machines a certain amount of time after launch to further accelerate adoption of the hardware, but never in Nintendo’s history have we dropped a system’s trade price so significantly less than 6 months after launch.

We are aware this may cause you, the loyal fans who supported Nintendo 3DS from the beginning, to lose trust in us, and this is not our intention in any way.

All of you who have kindly supported Nintendo 3DS from the beginning are Nintendo’s most important customers. Although we may not be able to completely prevent you from regretting purchasing Nintendo 3DS early, we would like to express our gratitude to our special customers like you by offering 20 free downloadable games from Nintendo eShop.

These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 23:59 pm (Central European Time) on August 11th. These Nintendo 3DS systems will be automatically registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador programme. For information and a tutorial video on how to connect your Nintendo 3DS to the Internet, please visit the Nintendo 3DS website here.

The programme contains two elements:

1.Beginning Sept. 1st, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in Nintendo eShop for the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, will be released as paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors can download them in advance of launch for free. Once the paid versions of the games are released in Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.

2. By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™, Inc.: Minigame Mania and Mario vs. Donkey Kong™. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on Nintendo 3DS in the future.

More details about this programme will be announced in the future.

Talkback

This seems like something that is just to good to be true. I swear it's 4:30 a.m. here, I must be having some sort of lucid dream.

steveyJuly 28, 2011

I honestly didn't see this coming.

Hopefully the Ambassador Program last farther into consoles life with more opportunities to get games earlier and neat loyalty rewards to come...

Its interesting that they are putting NES games on it, looks like Nintendo isn't keeping the console and handheld games separate now.

TJ SpykeJuly 28, 2011

Here is the press release from Nintendo of America: http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=30048

Basically, 3DS owners who access the eShop before August 12 (when the price drop happens), will get 10 free NES VC games starting September 1 before they go on sale to the general public. Sometime between September 1 and the end of the year we will also get 10 GBA VC games that will not be sold to the general public (so only early 3DS adopters will get these games).

Traveller, the wording is ambiguous. It makes it sound like they could be 3D Classics versions.

leahsdadJuly 28, 2011

Uh..it's 1:30 AM right now, I'm actually working my ass off getting some work done for very impatient but well paying clients, and I pull up RSS and I'm all "WTF!" 

At first, I'm thinking that I got gipped $80, because I bought at launch.

Then, these thoughts run through my head:

"Wait a minute, barely ever touch my Wii these days because I'm working so much.  When would I ever play some more NES VC games?"

"Oh, snap.  Do they mean NES on my 3DS?"

"Oh, double snap.  GBA is coming to the 3DS?"
 
"Oh, wait, $80?"

Right now, I can't decide if I'm furious about buying pre-price drop or joyful because I get to play GBA on the 3DS.  Probably both.

leahsdadJuly 28, 2011

Quote:

Traveller, the wording is ambiguous. It makes it sound like they could be 3D Classics versions.

I wish, but probably not.  I think Miyamoto said in an interview a month back that Nintendo would stop making 3D classics, they're too difficult to make (i.e. expensive) for what they expect to make back.  Apparently, they have to practically re-make the game, not from scratch but pretty close.

Quote from: leahsdad

Quote:

Traveller, the wording is ambiguous. It makes it sound like they could be 3D Classics versions.

I wish, but probably not.  I think Miyamoto said in an interview a month back that Nintendo would stop making 3D classics, they're too difficult to make (i.e. expensive) for what they expect to make back.  Apparently, they have to practically re-make the game, not from scratch but pretty close.

Maybe if they made a more meaty 3D classic they would sell better...

EnnerJuly 28, 2011

I'm very glad to see Nintendo giving something to early adopters of the 3DS. When I first read of the price drop, I thought they would be really screwing over those who bought the system earlier this year.

RABicleJuly 28, 2011

Pretty much 5 of the best GBA games right there. I reckon they ought to go obscure witht he next five

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
Kuru kuru kuruin
Drill Dozer
that kinda thing

Quote from: Traveller

Its interesting that they are putting NES games on it, looks like Nintendo isn't keeping the console and handheld games separate now.

I wonder whether the NES games will be limited to GBA re-releases.

TJ SpykeJuly 28, 2011

Quote from: MegaByte

Quote from: Traveller

Its interesting that they are putting NES games on it, looks like Nintendo isn't keeping the console and handheld games separate now.

I wonder whether the NES games will be limited to GBA re-releases.

Nope, because Donkey Kong Jr. wasn't part of the Classic NES Series in any region and AFAIK wasn't released on the GBA in any other form either.

Killer_Man_JaroTom Malina, Associate Editor (Europe)July 28, 2011

Come on, Nintendo of Europe. You've been doing relatively well lately. Don't leave this program on the table.

Either way, I'm just happy to get solid confirmation of GBA games. Well, first-party, at least.

Quote from: TJ

Quote from: MegaByte

Quote from: Traveller

Its interesting that they are putting NES games on it, looks like Nintendo isn't keeping the console and handheld games separate now.

I wonder whether the NES games will be limited to GBA re-releases.

Nope, because Donkey Kong Jr. wasn't part of the Classic NES Series in any region and AFAIK wasn't released on the GBA in any other form either.

Incorrect. e-Reader.

It would be hilarious if Europe doesn't jump on this immediately to try and cover the costs of Xenoblade etc..


I am sure this will be worldwide, if Australia has this then Europe will :)

Quote from: Traveller

It would be hilarious if Europe doesn't jump on this immediately to try and cover the costs of Xenoblade etc..


I am sure this will be worldwide, if Australia has this then Europe will :)

The European press releases just went up.

motangJuly 28, 2011

Thank you Nintendo for the 20 free games, and thanks for the price drop as we all know that is needed.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorJuly 28, 2011

Quote from: MegaByte

Quote from: TJ

Quote from: MegaByte

Quote from: Traveller

Its interesting that they are putting NES games on it, looks like Nintendo isn't keeping the console and handheld games separate now.

I wonder whether the NES games will be limited to GBA re-releases.

Nope, because Donkey Kong Jr. wasn't part of the Classic NES Series in any region and AFAIK wasn't released on the GBA in any other form either.

Incorrect. e-Reader.

+1 for e-Reader mention. :D

So... does this mean I won't be able to access my VC catalog from my Wii onto my 3DS?  I mean, I fully expected there was no chance of it happening anyway... but I had a tinge of hope.

Xero!July 28, 2011

You obviously read that article on IGN where their lack of true journalism made it sound like they were done making those games. What was really said was that the 3D classics were admittedly more difficult to make than anticipated and that only 6 were SCHEDULED. In other words, 6 were scheduled from the get go but IGN took that to mean, "Oh it's too difficult! We're only going to make 6."

CericJuly 28, 2011

They need to up there game choices and do a bit more.  I buy a 3D Classic of all the SNES and NES Zelda games just for multiple inventory items and touchscreen inventory management and map.  Also TMNT 2 because well its TMNT 2.

Ian SaneJuly 28, 2011

This is just such a surprisingly nice thing to do for early adopters.  I'll make sure to let my friend know as he already owns a 3DS.

Mop it upJuly 28, 2011

I'm hoping that The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap will be one of the next five titles to be revealed. For whatever reason I missed this game on the GBA, and it would be nice if I could get it essentially free instead of having to track down a copy, even if the free one is in digital form.

NemoJuly 28, 2011

The thing about being an early adopter and a hardcore Nintendo fan... is that I already own 5 out of the 10 games that they've announced. And I'm not feeling too interested in 3 out of the other 5. So far, I feel interested in only 2 games... and I may or may not like those two games.

But... it's better than nothing, and I'm sure to replay some of the games I already own.

I own all 5 NES games on the Wii VC, so I'm happy to have them in portable form at no cost. I lost most of my GBA games at some point, and all of the ones announced so far are things I'd love to play again.

There was no way I wasn't going to buy the system at launch, and I've had a lot of fun with it so far, so I wouldn't regret buying it when I did even if I weren't getting a bunch of free games.

Mop it upJuly 29, 2011

I'm probably going to make it a point to play each and every game just so I can start to feel like I got something out of it.

TJ SpykeJuly 29, 2011

Me too, I am gonna play every one at least once.

leahsdadJuly 29, 2011

You know, the more I think about this (and maybe many of you have already arrived at this conclusion) I feel like Nintendo is taking a huge hit with this Ambassador program, and makes me a bit more thankful for getting it.


I know we think about this is "digital copies cost them nothing, free for us, free for them" but I think we have to also consider the losses in potential sales here.  You know how a lot of publishers bemoan piracy because each pirated copy of a game is one less copy they sold?  The counter argument (and what makes such logic shaky) is that there's no guarantee that the person pirating it would have actually bought it, and that in fact, it seems more than likely that those chances are quite low.


But with the Ambassadors, most of us (800,000 in North America, at least) were hardcore Nintendo fans.  If these ambassador games came up for sale on the eshop and we weren't getting them for free, then chances are quite high that we would have paid money for these.  I know I would have, and I know for damn sure that I'm not the only one in these forums who would.  Now, I have no idea what kind of sales the eshop pulls in, what the attach rates are for eshop sales, etc.  But I would imagine among early adopters, it would be high, at least half?


And out of those games, I would have bought every single one of them when their turn came up on eshop.  I bought tennis, for crying out loud.  I've had to recharge my 3DS wallet, in $50 increments, 2 times already, and I'm starting to run low again.  I have Super Mario Land on my Gameboy, I still have my gameboy (in a box somewhere), but I still bought that game when it came out.


In other words, all that estimated $100 to $120 of ambassador games?  Nintendo has lost those potential sales from me. 


And another side effect is that if they give me all those games, or a big chunk of those games, all at once, chances are very high that I may skip purchasing eshop releases for a few weeks.  More lost sales there.


I posted (either in this thread or a similar one) that this ambassador thing costs Nintendo nothing.  I was wrong.  It is costing them quite a lot. 

CericJuly 29, 2011

Forget eShop sales.  Because of DK94 I haven't felt the need to buy another portable game.

qwerty1098August 04, 2011

i bought one as soon as i heard this . i got it off of bay for $20 bucks more than price drop. i got 20 games for$20

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