Nintendo slashing 3DS price to $170 in August

[Queasy]

Aren't you glad you waited?

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."

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 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.: 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.

 

[BD2003]

Looks like the vita price knocked some sense into them. Isn't competition great?

 

[ViRGE]

Wow, it's unusual to see Nintendo make a desperation move like this. But I don't think it was a secret that most people considered the 3DS overpriced. Heck, it probably still is.

I know very few people that can withstand the 3D display, and sans-gimmick it's a souped-up PSP with an equally bad battery life. So I guess I'm not surprised they're having troubles. Not that a price drop is going to change things (seriously, fix the battery life; get rid of the 3D screen if necessary).

At the very least they aren't leaving the early adopters/suckers out in the cold; the backlash from that would have been immense. However those games are basically "free" for Nintendo to give out since they own them (and Nintendo otherwise charges entirely too much for VC games), so it's still not a great deal.

 

[phillyTIM]

WOW, indeed! Shocking news for Nintendo to do this so early in the game (pun intended!)! Sign of the times of the economy, perhaps?

 

[BD2003]

WOW, indeed! Shocking news for Nintendo to do this so early in the game (pun intended!)! Sign of the times of the economy, perhaps?

Probably more a sign of the fact that people aren't willing to pay exorbitant prices for nintendo gear on blind faith anymore. They haven't brought the goods on the software side yet to justify the hardware purchase. Especially when that hardware is overpriced and the battery life is terrible.

So now the price is decent...but still need some decent software beyond 15 year old remakes.

 

[Jeffg010]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20084670-17/nintendo-slashes-3ds-price-to-$169.99/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheDigitalHome

According to this article "Nintendo has been having trouble selling the 3DS since it launched in February. During the company's last fiscal quarter ended June 30, Nintendo sold just 710,000 3DS units worldwide. In the U.S., its sales figures during the period hit just 110,000 units."

Well seeing how every hand held out there is playing games now the market is getting flooded. Ipod touch 4 came out about the same time as 3DS. Also don't for get the Ipad too.

4 Million iPads Sold Since December, 60 Million iPod Touches Sold Since 2007
http://www.ihasapple.com/2011/04/4-...mber-60-million-ipod-touches-sold-since-2007/

 

[ViRGE]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20084670-17/nintendo-slashes-3ds-price-to-$169.99/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheDigitalHome

According to this article "Nintendo has been having trouble selling the 3DS since it launched in February. During the company's last fiscal quarter ended June 30, Nintendo sold just 710,000 3DS units worldwide. In the U.S., its sales figures during the period hit just 110,000 units."

Do you want to know what's really interesting about those numbers? The 3DS launched in NA/EUR/AUS a week before the start of Q2*. In the first month/week the 3DS was for sale, they sold 3.6mil units. Whereas in a whole quarter they moved 1/5th as many units.

The only thing that makes the 3DS unit sales respectable right now are the launch-week sales. Otherwise Sony sold more than twice as many PSPs (1.8mil) in Q2, and that's a near-retirement console that's dead outside of Japan.

That's not just awful, that's a disaster.

* The Japanese launch was at the end of February

Edit: 3DS lifetime to date unit sales.

NA: 1.43m (+110K)
Japan: 1.27m (+210K)
Other: 1.63m (+400K)
Total: 4.32m (+710K)

 

[BD2003]

I can't say I'm surprised. They can still turn it around with time though if they make the right decisions. The ps3 was a disaster at first, but they managed to salvage it over time with consistent price drops and quality software.

Right now the 3DS just isn't competitive. Outside of the 3D screen which it seems half the people couldnt care less about, the hardware is beastly, clunky, ugly, underpowered and short-lived.

The software is scant, overpriced and lacking in quality.

The online functionality is barebones and half functional. Their current digital download strategy seems focused on porting 20 year old games and the absolute worst shovelware garbage ever hoisted upon gamers.

So yeah, no one should be surprised. They can get away with the poor hardware or online if the software is up to snuff, but when they're lacking on all fronts, people aren't going to buy it.

The price cut is just a start, but I wouldn't buy a single game on this platform even if they gave me the hardware for free. The best software is a 15 year old prettied up port for $40? No thanks. That's a $10 digital download at best.

 

[mmntech]

They wanted way too much for the 3DS, pure and simple. The glasses-freee display wasn't enough of a gimmick to convince people otherwise.

Hey, for $170, I may actually buy it now. Get me some OOT 3D action. Awesome.

 

[Blayze]

It was overpriced at $250. For $170 I'll probably pick one up.

 

[Ross Ridge]

Looks like the vita price knocked some sense into them. Isn't competition great?

Actually, I think it was PSP that scared them. Overall since the Nintendo 3DS has been released I think the PSP has sold more units worldwide. If it was the Vita that was the problem they could've waited until it was actually competing against them.

Still a lower price point won't solve the biggest problem with the 3DS, the lack of games. The Nintendo press release does mention however a bunch of first party titles on the way. Hopefully these aren't being rushed to market.

Oh, and if you payed $250 for a Nintendo 3DS don't feel too bad, the press release also mentions that you get free games. (Blah, which I see Quesy already quoted...)

 

[BD2003]

Actually, I think it was PSP that scared them. Overall since the Nintendo 3DS has been released I think the PSP has sold more units worldwide. If it was the Vita that was the problem they could've waited until it was actually competing against them.

Still a lower price point won't solve the biggest problem with the 3DS, the lack of games. The Nintendo press release does mention however a bunch of first party titles on the way. Hopefully these aren't being rushed to market.

Oh, and if you payed $250 for a Nintendo 3DS don't feel too bad, the press release also mentions that you get free games. (Blah, which I see Quesy already quoted...)

Yeah, I mean there's no way to sugarcoat it. Even in the absence of competition it's still pretty grim. I recall the DS having a pretty garbage first year as well yet go on to rule the world so it's far from a failure at this point.

Still, if I was a betting man, I wouldn't place my chips with any of these portable systems, future or past. Their era is done. They're as relevant as standalone MP3 players at this point. They'll exist, but they're going to be marginalized to an even greater extent going forwards.

 

[Oyeve]

Hmm, I may have to get one for the son. His DSlite died and he loves the zelda games. May get one of these used as those should drop in price too. 99 bucks for a used 3ds seems good.

 

[Anarchist420]

Just as consoles hold PC games back, handhelds hold consoles back. They could've made the past few Castlevania games for the X360 and PS3 instead of for the handhelds. In an event, I'm holding off on buying any hardware other than for my PC until there is an IGA Castlevania game that's not on the PC.

 

[mmntech]

Yeah, I mean there's no way to sugarcoat it. Even in the absence of competition it's still pretty grim. I recall the DS having a pretty garbage first year as well yet go on to rule the world so it's far from a failure at this point.

Still, if I was a betting man, I wouldn't place my chips with any of these portable systems, future or past. Their era is done. They're as relevant as standalone MP3 players at this point. They'll exist, but they're going to be marginalized to an even greater extent going forwards.

I don't think their era is done, but the iPhone certainly changed the game big time. That's why the PSV is in a bit better of a position than the 3DS. People want their mobile devices to be like a Swiss Army Knife that offers instant gratification. Single function hardware is dying fast.

As for its first year, Nintendo pulled a Sony with the 3DS. Remember when the PS3 first came out. The thing had revolutionary hardware. It was the ultimate home entertainment device at the time. But it had very few games. The games it did have, sucked. Nintendo made the fatal error of developing the hardware first them letting the software come later. You can't do that today. Thats why Sony has been heavily focused on developing and marketing AAA titles for the PSV early on. They made that mistake twice, and they're not going to repeat it.

 

[Beev]

Hmm, I may have to get one for the son. His DSlite died and he loves the zelda games. May get one of these used as those should drop in price too. 99 bucks for a used 3ds seems good.

I would wager a used 3DS will be ~$139.99

 

[DaveSimmons]

This is more evidence that the answer to "will smart phones destroy the portable market" is: YES.

Many people get their smart phone for $0 - $99 now, so even $170 is much more than that and an extra expense when they already have the phone.

 

[fatpat268]

Hmm... a 3DS at $170 is tempting, but I think I'll still wait for the inevitable revision.

Hopefully battery life and the screen scratching will be fixed in that revision.

Still planning to get the Vita day one... whenever that is.

 

[Ross Ridge]

Hmm... a 3DS at $170 is tempting, but I think I'll still wait for the inevitable revision.

Hopefully battery life and the screen scratching will be fixed in that revision.

The 3DS "lite" is a couple of years away at least, but I think they fixed screen scratching problem already with bigger rubber bumpers to keep the bottom screen from touching the top screen.

 

[BD2003]

This is more evidence that the answer to "will smart phones destroy the portable market" is: YES.

Many people get their smart phone for $0 - $99 now, so even $170 is much more than that and an extra expense when they already have the phone.

Not to mention the software costs a order of magnitude more on the 3DS.

 

[xboxist]

Speaking as a very happy DSi XL owner, I think they shot themselves in the foot with the XL. It's the perfect handheld screen size, IMO. And then they try to tempt me to pay about $80 MORE for a new system with a much smaller screen? I think they way overrated the "3D" aspect of the 3DS.

So now the XLs and 3DS systems will both be $170. I'd still much prefer an XL at this point. The 3DS is simply a downgrade in my eyes. Until the killer games start being pumped out for it, I feel zero incentive to get one.

 

[Ross Ridge]

So now the XLs and 3DS systems will both be $170. I'd still much prefer an XL at this point. The 3DS is simply a downgrade in my eyes. Until the killer games start being pumped out for it, I feel zero incentive to get one.

I wouldn't be surprised if the $170 price for the 3DS doesn't push down the price of Nintendo DSi models. (And cause the DS Lite to be dropped completely...)

 

[bunnyfubbles]

just in time for StarFox64 3D

 

[Aikouka]

To me, it seems like the problem is that Nintendo has no one to compete with... except itself. The DS/DSi actually outsold the 3DS (link). With the Wii, Nintendo could at least try and market themselves as the more affordable alternative, but the 3DS was simply too expensive compared to their own older hand-held. I'm not really sure if the PSP would have much to do with it... it might a little bit since the PSP is cheaper as well.

Maybe someone can answer this as well... what's the WiFi encryption compatibility like? Based on this Wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3ds#Technical_comparison ) it looks like the 3DS is compatible with everything as there are no caveats listed, but I know the original DS can only use WEP and the DSi/DSxl say that it may not work with some WEP/WEP2. Is that an issue of TKIP vs AES? I know my PSP refuses to connect to my network.

 

[Dumac]

Not to mention the software costs a order of magnitude more on the 3DS.

But is many magnitudes higher in terms of quality. I can't even be bothered to play free mobile games.

For the simple-minded folk, because mobile gaming will suffice, but maybe that will be a good thing in that handheld library complexity will rise.