3DS MASSIVE Price Drop - 250 to 170

[substantial_snake]

Pretty much thread title.

http://kotaku.com/5825495/nintendo-3...ive-price-drop

A drop from 250 to about 170 makes it a much more tempting console..when it gets some games. Also makes me chuckle thinking back to Nintendo's reasoning for launching the 3DS at 250 bucks. Thoughts?

[Icarus Moonsight]

With the DSiXL near $200, they had little alternative in pricing the 3DS. I can't wait to see how much the DS units are going to be after the drop. I'd love to pick up a brand new DSLite for $50

Your move Sony.
Regards,
Nintendo

[SpaceHarrier]

At least they are offering 20 free d/l games to the early adopters, who bought (or buy?) before the price drop takes effect on Aug 12.

Suddenly, my (renewed) interest in this system starts to RISE!

[Colorado Rockies]

Wow that was fast. I'll pick one up at this price just for Ocarina.

[Swamperon]

I'm amazed to see they're dropping it by that much this quickly. I guess the slowish sales and recent slew of bad press around it have prompted them.

However it is the best thing to do. The damn thing was clearly way over priced. They got greedy. Still, big price drops after launch are often seen negatively.

Good to see they're recouping people who bought early. Will be interesting to see how big a drop the UK sees.

[Press_Start]

I'm not too disappointed by the price drop. Actually, I'm happy as a calm since I'm getting 20 free games with my $250 purchase.

(Which makes Sony's PSN compensation look really weak.)

As for the price drop itself, many reasons why Nintendo did it:

• Spring $250 experiment didn't displace as many 3DS as they hoped. And the unloading of major blockbusters (Kid Icarus, Super Mario 3D, etc.), they want to guarantee a great first holiday season for the handheld.
• PS Vita's matching launch price might have put some serious heat for big N to opt the markdown. Then again, the attractive $170 price tag now might have made it worse since it puts even more serious heat on Sony to perform AND compete better @ Christmas '11.
• And that's all I got for now.... :P

[Nz17]

At least they are offering 20 free d/l games to the early adopters, who bought (or buy?) before the price drop takes effect on Aug 12.

More details: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/0...ds-price-drop/

To wit, we early buyers are getting twenty games at no additional cost... but those games are re-releases of first-party NES and GBA games. Like many of you, I already own most of these and have little interest in the rest. That's partly why I didn't buy them the first time!

Don't get me wrong, I've had some good times with my 3DS and I'll be downloading these re-releases, but I just don't feel I got $80 out of the 3DS from these first four months. Suped-up versions of Street Fighter IV and Zelda 64 alongside Shantae: Risky's Revenge were all fun plays, but everything else save for Kirby's Dream Land was all average to poor. Yes I find the Netflix app useful, and the 3DS's built-in apps have been amusing and useful at times as well. But a lot of this newest stuff should have been there from the start (like Netflix and the Web browser) and a set of 20 ROM dumps doesn't really feel like much compensation for the sudden devaluation of the hardware.

For those who haven't yet bought a 3DS, there's been no better time to buy than August 12 - you'll finally get the features and price the handheld console should have had in the first place.

[dairugger]

heres a list of the free games offered to early adaptors:

If you purchased a 3DS anytime before the price cut date, you will receive 10 free Virtual Console NES and 10 free Gameboy Advance games. Users must connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before the price cut date. They will then be automatically registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program.

The list of NES games include:

Super Mario Bros.
Donkey Kong Jr.
Balloon Fight
Ice Climber
The Legend of Zelda
+5 more

These titles 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."

The list of GBA games include:

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Metroid Fusion
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
+5 more

Nintendo says the GBA games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and that it "currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future."

I think this is a great move by nintendo. I bought my 3ds on day one and dont feel cheated, ive had a blast with it. and i think its great that theyre giving something to us early buyers, they dont have to but they did.

[misfits859]

Wow that was fast. I'll pick one up at this price just for Ocarina.

Yep, me too. Been debating picking it up for that reason for the past few weeks. Guess I can wait a couple more. Woot!

[megasdkirby]

Could this mean that a different version of the 3DS, which was talked about earlier, be the reason for the current price drop of the console? Maybe Nintendo plans to release an XL version for a bit more...maybe for $200?

[portnoyd]

They better throw in some Astroglide with those downloadable 3DS shop games (THAT I ALREADY HAVE 3 PHYSICAL COPIES OF, EACH) because that's how my asshole is feeling right now. Why must you rape my butthole, Nintendo? Why?

[Oobgarm]

They better throw in some Astroglide with those downloadable 3DS shop games (THAT I ALREADY HAVE 3 PHYSICAL COPIES OF, EACH) because that's how my asshole is feeling right now. Why must you rape my butthole, Nintendo? Why?

Hey, here's some free shit that you'll likely not play since you already have it. I'd imagine that at least half of the early adopter base already has those titles in some shape or fashion, or has absolutely zero interest in them.

I applaud that they're giving something to those who bought early, at least.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Nintendo says the GBA games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and that it "currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future."

While I appreciate the free GBA software, not making those available for purchase makes no sense considering those are some pretty desirable titles that I'm sure the late adopters would like to have on their system. (And could easily net Nintendo big profit.)

[Icarus Moonsight]

They can always change their minds anytime after August 12th.

[Swamperon]

It says 'currently have no plans'. Give it a year and I bet a good portion of those titles will have been released on the 3DS VC.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Okay, so ... any details on how we get these games?

Just log in to the 3DS shop and download? Register a code for points?

*edit* never mind, games aren't available until September 1st (for the NES games). I thought they'd be day/date with the price drop.

[RPG_Fanatic]

That's a good drop but I still don't want one. Now my wish is Sony will drop the Vita to $200.

[zemmix]

Sweet this means I'll be able to pick up a nearly new used copy here in Japan for ¥12000 or so.

[Darko]

I'd rather just have the difference in price. I already have physical copies of every game they've listed for Ambassadors thus far. Why would I want to play them on a system that has 3 hours of battery when I have the other systems sitting on my shelf ready to go? I'm willing to accept the price drop, but at least offer something ORIGINAL to the early adopters instead of rehashing the same shit for the 200th time.

[Robocop2]

Well this news makes it all of the sudden more tempting to ignore the battery life.... I gues I could always get an extended battery