REDMOND, Wash., July 28, 2011 – 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."

Press Release

Fun fun fun!

EDIT: Added paragraphs from the press release with a link, and converted the thread into a news article. ~ Earendil

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@Mr_Mustache

They are probably just saying that because they don't want to officially announce a GBA-specific genre yet.

Posted by

DrFinkelstein

on: 07/29/11, 02:09

IDreamofHime said:

Gimme a decent price here in the UK Nintendo and I'll buy one and a copy of DOA the morning of the drop.

£150 for the system and a game would be Golden.

Doubt this will happen,Nintendo didn't set the price of the 3DS over here,individual stores do I think.

Posted by

jonjon85

on: 07/29/11, 02:10

@Mr_Mustache

I'll correct it once I'm next to my computer again. Honestly, though, I think Nintendo had always planned to release the GBA games. I think their current financial situation and the PS Vita forced their hand earlier than expected. Maybe that's why the NES games will be released without extra features to be updated later. They probably weren't even half-ready with the GBA games which is why they have even less features. I do believe that both NES and GBA games will eventually become permanent additions to the 3DS Virtual Console, and they will be joined later by the SNES and Genesis.

Posted by

sirmastersephiroth

on: 07/29/11, 02:14

Wow seriously? That's quite the price drop. $80.

Zero, I was right.

$250 was too much for a handheld if Nintendo was expecting it to sell like the DS. I said that before the 3DS launched and before we knew the price when people were predicting a $300 price point for it. Nintendo almost fell into the same trap as Sony, expecting their system to sell just because their last system did so well. Thankfully, Nintendo saw the light much quicker than Sony did and did what they had to do. They are in a much, much better position now at $170 for the 3DS to do well.

That being said, I'm still not buying one until at least the first hardware revision.

Posted by

WrathOfSamus777

on: 07/29/11, 02:22

Edited:

07/29/11, 02:51

@Deerock69 Well I believe I'm the only one who used the word desperate, and I haven't been clamoring for a price drop at all. Although if you look at the context of how I used the word, I'm not actually saying that they are desperate.

Either way I think this move is coming off of the 3DS not performing how they had hoped, but I think they shot high with the price while fully intending to drop it if it didn't work out. So it is probably part of the plan. And I think this thing is going to sell gangbusters at this price, but we'll see.

Posted by

Zero

on: 07/29/11, 02:57

@Zero

I think history will repeat itself and the 3DS will beat the PS Vita though not by as big a margin as before.

Posted by

sirmastersephiroth

on: 07/29/11, 03:12

Oh I think it's going to kill at this price. And I get the feeling that $250 was already a lowball by Sony, so they probably can't drop too much anytime soon.

What 3DS needs right now though is A. a few great months and B. developers to get their asses back in gear. The momentum seemed to be shifting away from 3DS after the slow launch, but I think Nintendo can get it back.

Posted by

Zero

on: 07/29/11, 03:17

Zero said:

@Deerock69 Well I believe I'm the only one who used the word desperate, and I haven't been clamoring for a price drop at all. Although if you look at the context of how I used the word, I'm not actually saying that they are desperate.

Either way I think this move is coming off of the 3DS not performing how they had hoped, but I think they shot high with the price while fully intending to drop it if it didn't work out. So it is probably part of the plan. And I think this thing is going to sell gangbusters at this price, but we'll see.

You're right. Not as big- BIGGER.

EDIT- Oops I quoted the wrong poster. I guess that's what I get for posting from my 3DS.

Posted by

Deerock69

on: 07/29/11, 03:24

Edited:

07/29/11, 03:37

Not as big as what?!

Posted by

Zero

on: 07/29/11, 03:29

@Zero

They intended to take a loss on system sales then? That doesn't sound like Nintendo... have they ever taken a loss on hardware?

I hope they advertise the crap out of this price drop cause if their big hits and price drop still doesn't work out for them, then ouch. I guess 3D gaming isn't as big as it seems it could have been. Quite the departure from the insanely good impressions from when it was shown at E3 for the first time.

Posted by

VofEscaflowne

on: 07/29/11, 03:33

@VofEscaflowne
It's definitely going to increase sales. What Nintendo is missing though is a slew of casual games for the casual crowd. They have Nintendogs & Cats but other than that, they don't have much. They're going to need that if they want the 3DS to really sell. They need a Brain Age type of game for the system.

Posted by

WrathOfSamus777

on: 07/29/11, 03:37

@WrathOfSamus777

I somewhat wonder if Nintendo is going to be able to get that crowd again with the 3DS. Maybe in Japan, but in the US, why would anyone pay 40 dollars, or even $20, for Brain Age when you can play a similar game on IPhone for much much less and not really lose anything?

I don't think this price drop will help with that crowd. What I think it will help with a lot is with the younger crowd. Buying a $250 handheld for your kids is a lot to swallow, especially when a game costs $40. But $170 is much more palatable.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 07/29/11, 04:05

@Jargon But you could play "similar" games on the Wii and DS... and none of those sold nearly as much. Nintendo games sell in a way that others don't. I think the casual games will still be huge.

Posted by

Zero

on: 07/29/11, 04:08

@Zero
I'm going to agree with Jargon, here. It looks to me like the Clubhouse Games demographic is happy playing Words With Friends on their phones and they're not coming back to Nintendo. Back when the Wii and DS launched, mobile phone gaming was still a joke. Casual gaming had a lot of naysayers. Not so nowadays.

Just speaking as a DS and 3DS owner, I'm not really in the market for Nintendogs or Brain Age the way I was 5 years ago. Back then, those games were fresh concepts and pretty revolutionary. Apart from the quality of those games, I particularly liked how they laughed in the face of the Eternal Teenagers who were the loudest voices in gaming. But times have changed and even those concepts don't really hold my interest anymore. Nintendo has to go sailing for new ideas again.

Posted by

kriswright

on: 07/29/11, 04:17

Edited:

07/29/11, 04:18

@Zero

No you couldn't. The big games on Wii obviously not and games like Brain Age sold big before smartphones had been heavily adopted. Brain Training can obviously be done just as well on a smartphone. If Brain Age comes out for $40 on 3DS, I would be incredibly surprised if it sold like it did on DS.

It looks like Nintendogs + Cats has sold well, but it doesn't seem like it's the craze that the original was.

Now obviously if Nintendo comes up with some new casual experience that can't be replicated on other handheld devices then that could change my mind.

@kriswright

Yes Clubhouse Games is another great example of a game that would not sell the way it did today.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 07/29/11, 04:19

Edited:

07/29/11, 04:24

@DrFinkelstein
@sirmastersephiroth

..but they said they had no plans, more or less.

Saying you have "no plans" -- when you really have "future plans" -- would be a lie. ..Right?

Posted by

Mr_Mustache

on: 07/29/11, 04:50

@Jargon
@kriswright
@Zero
Well the GBC & GBA both sold very well without casual games, so maybe Nintendo thinks they don't need them as much this time around. If that's the case, I don't see the 3DS selling as well as the DS. I know that's a tall order for any system and it will still probably outsell Vita and still do very well for itself, but I don't know if it will sell a 100 million+ units the way the DS has done if it doesn't have the casual masses.

Posted by

WrathOfSamus777

on: 07/29/11, 04:52

Edited:

07/29/11, 04:55

@Jargon I'm saying that a bunch of other companies tried to ride the wave on Wii and DS and very few came close. Nintendo knows how to sell software. I really don't think Smartphones are going to change this too much. Nintendo might have to price some stuff more budget, like $20 or something (isn't that what Brain Age originally debuted at anyway?) but they're going to sell software.

Posted by

Zero

on: 07/29/11, 04:54

@Mr_Mustache

They also said they had no plans to drop the 3DS price anytime soon. That went rather well...

Posted by

sirmastersephiroth

on: 07/29/11, 04:54

Wow! $169.99! I would have thought they'd drop the price to $199.99 first, why such the large price drop? I think from a business perspective $199.99 would have made more sense to go for, and then lower it if it's still not selling well, but of course from a consumer perspective this is great!

Posted by

Brick

on: 07/29/11, 04:57