Nintendo 3DS Price Drops To $169.99

Published on 07-28-2011 10:33 AM

59 Comments

Nintendo 3DS Price Drops 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.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 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™7 in 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 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.

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

Remember that Nintendo 3DS features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.

*Some features require a broadband Internet connection.

Source: Press Release

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Nintendo 3DS Price Drops To $169.99
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59 Comments

Dralor - 07-28-2011, 12:32 PM

Wow the Vita must really have them running scared to create such a massive reaction.

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SadPanda - 07-28-2011, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by Dralor

Wow the Vita must really have them running scared to create such a massive reaction.

Don't forget rather weak sales.

I'm just rather flummoxed to see an announced price drop. Why not just drop the price now?

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venomv - 07-28-2011, 01:03 PM

I can't see how it has anything to do with the Vita, they simply need to get sales somehow.

Personally, I think they need to advertise more when this price drop hits. I have not seen one TV commercial that I remember about the 3DS, and the only commercial I remember about a 3DS game didn't even try to play up the 3D aspect (though that is a tough thing to do).

I'm just not sure the general public knows what the 3DS is.

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Pro A. - 07-28-2011, 01:37 PM

A gimmick is probably the first reaction.

If nothing else, this is making me think about getting one. 250 was a bit much for me, but 170 is more in the wheel house.

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SadPanda - 07-28-2011, 02:00 PM

Ok, but what you gonna play?

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Dralor - 07-28-2011, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by SadPanda

Don't forget rather weak sales.

I'm just rather flummoxed to see an announced price drop. Why not just drop the price now?

Sure but weak sales alone may cause a price drop but not massive priice drop.

Originally Posted by venomv

I can't see how it has anything to do with the Vita, they simply need to get sales somehow.

Personally, I think they need to advertise more when this price drop hits. I have not seen one TV commercial that I remember about the 3DS, and the only commercial I remember about a 3DS game didn't even try to play up the 3D aspect (though that is a tough thing to do).

I'm just not sure the general public knows what the 3DS is.

It has everything to do with the Vita coming up at the same price in combination with the weak sales though. A price drop of a 1/3rd within the first year is pretty much unprecidented. Especially in systems that haven't failed miserably. It's a desperate move.

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SadPanda - 07-28-2011, 02:39 PM

Originally Posted by Dralor

Sure but weak sales alone may cause a price drop but not massive priice drop.

It has everything to do with the Vita coming up at the same price in combination with the weak sales though. A price drop of a 1/3rd within the first year is pretty much unprecidented. Especially in systems that haven't failed miserably. It's a desperate move.

Well there is always this little fiasco back when the iPhone first came out... /shrug

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zero 7 - 07-28-2011, 02:47 PM

nice to see us early adopters get some freebies

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Dralor - 07-28-2011, 02:48 PM

Except at that time the 16GB was already strongly rumored and released 4 months later. I'm not saying the 3DS is doomed to failure just the move screams of reaction to Vita's price and despiration to get sales up.

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Viper - 07-28-2011, 04:26 PM

Dralor, the PSP and some DS models have been the exact same price for a logn time. Never saw Nintendo rush to drop the price in that situation. The difference here is the sluggish 3DS sales, not the "we fear the Vita" mentality you are drawing up.

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Segitz - 07-28-2011, 04:32 PM

I'd say it's both... Vita is quite a lot more interesting than PSP (which also retailed at 250USD at the beginning), at least in my opinion. I don't doubt Nintendo preemtively strikes here, too. I am NOT saying it's the only reason, either. Slow sales of the 3DS are also a big concern for them.

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Viper - 07-28-2011, 04:42 PM

I don't see Vita as being more interesting than PSP was prior to release. PSP had massive hyping, media was all over it and the DS was being looked at like it had 2 heads...so to speak. While Vita is still being hyped and getting good media coverage, it's not on the same level PSP was. And the 3DS was well hyped and loved by the media prior to launch so the main concern has been the sluggish sales.

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Dralor - 07-28-2011, 04:58 PM

Except Viper it's tracking about the same as the DS did at the start and they are making more money off each unit. You don't make such rash decisions without outside pressure. Be it Vita or smartphones this reaction is caused by more then just sales.

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Viper - 07-28-2011, 05:04 PM

Yeah, it's called investors.

Did you see their reaction when the Wii U wasn't a full on social only gaming device? They freaked and sold a shit ton of stock. Now they are selling stock because of the 3DS sales. Doesn't matter that sales are similar to the DS, they are selling stock anyway.

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Dralor - 07-28-2011, 05:15 PM

I think the investors are more freaked that nintendo lost money for the 2nd quarter in like ever then the specific sales of the 3DS though I guess you could aregue if the sales of the 3DS were on track with Nintendo's forcast they wouldn't be losing money.

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Viper - 07-28-2011, 05:23 PM

They lost money in a recent quarter for currency rate exchanges. They did the same thing in 2005. Had they not did a currency exchange rate, they'd have posted a $500 million profit.

Even with sales down, you don't lose money on a product that sells at a profit. You simply don't earn up to expectations but you don't lose money.

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Dralor - 07-28-2011, 05:40 PM

I am aware of that but if they were planning to use the sales to cover the WiiU ramp up and they fall short of expectations they don't make enough to cover it. Now i didn't see the currency writeoff in the report though I did a quick glance so might of missed it and I don't think their last lost was 2005. I want to say it was much newer than that like 2009 or 2010 but that could be just me not feeling like it's been 6 years since then.

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Viper - 07-28-2011, 05:48 PM

That's it. I'm thinking of the 2010 quarter.

The recent quarter was stated as thus:
"Net loss for the first quarter was ¥25.5 billion, with sales at ¥93.9 billion, down 50 per cent compared to ¥188.6 billion for the same period last year. The company blamed poor sales, exchange rates and research and development costs for the Wii U."

The dropping dollar is hurting them pretty badly. Seems they are doing currency write offs far more frequently than they used to. Without the write offs, they'd still have profited though I can't say how much since I've not seen how much the write of was for yet.

Also to note, they can fund the Wii U launch with their reserve capital. They have several billion in reserve so the quarterly loss won't harm the Wii U launch efforts.

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Dralor - 07-28-2011, 06:12 PM

From their cash reserves they could probably fund a whole generation or two but obviously for Nintendo that would be very bad becuase unlike Sony and Microsoft they don't have major sources of income outside of the gaming sector.

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Segitz - 07-28-2011, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by Viper

I don't see Vita as being more interesting than PSP was prior to release. PSP had massive hyping, media was all over it and the DS was being looked at like it had 2 heads...so to speak. While Vita is still being hyped and getting good media coverage, it's not on the same level PSP was. And the 3DS was well hyped and loved by the media prior to launch so the main concern has been the sluggish sales.

Well... Vita is basically an Iphone PLUS A PSP2. That's the mass appeal, I guess. And that at a price an Apple buyer can only dream of... sadly no telephone support... but we should get SIP and stuff at least. It can do the same stuff the DS did (and that was a MASSIVE seller) and do that much more. The 3DS on the other hand is, as many people say it, a DS with a new display. And I CANNOT believe that Vita wasn't a notable factor in this price drop. Again, I am not saying it's the only one, but at least a good portion of this pricedrop is due to Vita.

And, in my eyes (that's as you know not focussed on Nintendo at all, but rather Sony and PC stuff, i.e. mostly multiplatform) the 3DS wasn't that much hyped at all. From what I got, it was "just" a DS with a new display. I know there's more to it, but do the general unwashed masses care? I think not. And by that I'd also say a price of 250€ is a LOT to ask. Probably too much.

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