3DS Price Drop from $249.99 to $169.99.
polycounter lvl 9
EDIT: http://www.nintendo.com/corp/nintendo3ds/news/
"Whether it's a move to gain sales for the holiday season or simply to create a userbase too large for the PSP Vita work against, Nintendo has done an unprecedented price drop for the 3DS. Effective August 12th, Nintendo will reduce the price of the 3DS from $249.99 to $169.99. By far the biggest price drop for any system in this short amount of time from launch that I can remember.
If you already have a 3DS, Nintendo does have a way to make up for the $80 price drop. Those that own a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11 will be registered for the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program so that they can receive 20free games. As detailed in their email:
Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions ofthe games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.
By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ 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. "
http://original-gamer.com/?action=article&id=2676
Pretty daring from Nintendo to do this, i wonder how this will play out. The 20 free games are pretty good as well, makes me wanna go buy a 3ds just to get those. But i don't think i will. Also, i am sure this will be a big factor to play when the VITA comes out, Nintendo having the upper hand because it has so many games already and some backwards compatibility.
"Whether it's a move to gain sales for the holiday season or simply to create a userbase too large for the PSP Vita work against, Nintendo has done an unprecedented price drop for the 3DS. Effective August 12th, Nintendo will reduce the price of the 3DS from $249.99 to $169.99. By far the biggest price drop for any system in this short amount of time from launch that I can remember.
If you already have a 3DS, Nintendo does have a way to make up for the $80 price drop. Those that own a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11 will be registered for the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program so that they can receive 20free games. As detailed in their email:
Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions ofthe games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.
By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ 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. "
http://original-gamer.com/?action=article&id=2676
Pretty daring from Nintendo to do this, i wonder how this will play out. The 20 free games are pretty good as well, makes me wanna go buy a 3ds just to get those. But i don't think i will. Also, i am sure this will be a big factor to play when the VITA comes out, Nintendo having the upper hand because it has so many games already and some backwards compatibility.
Replies
HMV are selling the 3DS for 210 and have been doing so for ages... so for me this 'ambassador' program actually hurts this new price drop, at least in countries where HMV are selling the 3DS on the cheap. I was tempted to pick up a 3DS when the price drop came, now I'm just confused :thumbup:
EDIT: Although I am being a typical internet retard by complaining about the chance to get lots of free stuff. So fuck me. :poly124:
When is the red 3DS coming out?
I'm thinking this is also due to the 3DS's sales up to this point, which have been below expectations. Now, Nintendo's sales expectations were probably unrealistically inflated by the popularity of the DS, as well as the recent push in the film industry for 3D. (which is starting to fall off itself, and has never really translated to the video game industry)
The fact of the matter is that Nintendo was charging a rather high premium for their latest handheld. I understand the profit they were making per unit was over $100 at launch. At this point they will still be making a profit off of the hardware at $170, just not quite as enormous of one. This price drop strikes me as necessary for the 3DS to remain competitive, and should help considerably going into the holiday season this year.
Its in response to the 3DS not selling well at all, and its homeland completely rejecting it all in all. The response to the Playstation Vita will be the next iteration of the 3DS; I'd put money on it being on the shelves within four months of the Vita coming out.
The DS began to really lag in sales shortly after the iphone came out.
If you get the system from a big-box store like Best Buy or Target, they'll take your receipt and refund the difference immediately. It's part of their company policy to do this whenever a product gets a major price drop. All you have to do is ask for it. Net result, you get to enjoy the free downloadable games, while also paying only $170 for your system.
The problem has been and still is because of the lack of games for the platform, not to mention that the massive new target audience they found with the DS and wii is not the kind of audience that adapts early.
If anything it means that nintendo put their profit margins for the 3ds way too high to begin with, since sony isn't afraid to take a profit hit per console to have a lower price, but this is something that nintendo never does.
On the new DS, I couldn't care less. They don't have the games I want. I'll wait for the PSV, thanks
-m
Would the games not be locked to the system? I think Nintendo have considered that idea of yours....
Oh no, what he meant was that some stores will give you the difference back if you bought a system close to a price-drop.
you never replace the system.
OOOOOH, sorry Rich. Hmm, I just bought mine in GAME, I reckon they'll be wise to that
So after reading about this Ambassador scheme I immediately went out and bought a 3DS
Already beat Gohma in OoT. Pretty good game, but the resolution on the 3D screen is insultingly bad.
Alternately, you can take the new one and return it straight up using the old one's receipt. As long as you haven't opened the new one and it's still within the retailer's return policy deadline (usually 30 days), you can get the exchange without a hassle, assuming you don't mind making two transactions at the store.
I must say that Nintendo's current lineup doesn't interest me all that much. At the same time, that Uncharted demo for the PSP made me a little bit worried. Their implementation of the touchscreen controls seemed to make the game almost too easy for my taste. Of course, we're still able to use the traditional controls, but I hope that touchscreen won't be used to make the games "more accessible".
Falling into pits and getting my ass kicked plays a big part in making the game fun in my eyes :poly142: And PSP1 had some of the toughest games I had played this generation.
No.
So I got out my N64 and am happily replaying the original version.
Price drop or no, I am back to having no reason to buy the 3DS. (Someday perhaps, though, but I'll wait for the 'lite' version in red)
Haha good idea! It can be pretty uncomfortable to play on the 3DS actually, and REALLY uncomfortable if you are using the Ocarina, plus the game is unplayable in 3D cause of the horrible aliasing cause of the crappy resolution of the 3D screen.
Still want them to remake Majoras Mask though. And a 3D Wind Waker style game. And a new 3DS model that isnt crappy.
With all of those requests, you're better off just asking Nintendo to solve world hunger.
I... don't get what you mean. I reckon those 'requests' are actually inevitable. Are you saying that any of those things is impossible? I'd say all three things are going down in Kyoto right now.
Nevermind.
You do know the 3ds has a higher screen resolution than ocarina of time had on the nintendo 64?
No, seriously. Explain what you meant. Unless you were just trollin' of course.
You mean the N64's output?
I'm just telling you what I'm seeing brah. I got a shiny new 3DS right here, and there are horrible jaggies everywhere; not only while playing OoT in 3D, but navigating the HOME interface in 3D as well. Its very apparent with 3D turned on.
the N64 was a 480p capable console, but few games ever went that high, most were in the 320x240 region, the 3ds top screen has a resolution of 400x240 (800x240).
Not to mention, it is bigger than the ds.
The main difference is that the 3ds screen is crystal clear versus that of a crt back in the days, most noticable with the fact that you'll never be able to read any tiny text on the blurred out crt, but on an lcd screen you see every pixel.
How ever did you handle the DS?
Never noticed a problem there... I guess I was mostly playing Phoenix Wright though :P
It was just a small joke.
I'm fairly sure the 3DS disables AA while in 3D due to the load on the GPU.
how do i know? cuz i've been looking at a 3ds screen for work for the last 8 months.
Much like games on most consoles: performance is mostly always chosen before AA.
Aye, in 2D its a great looking game
For Iwata, that translates to a 50 percent cut from his annual salary of approximately $2 million. Directors close to the project will see a 30 percent pay cut, and other executives will get their pay reduced by 20 percent.
"We decided that if we take brave measures now," Iwata wrote in a letter, "there's high likelihood that a many players can enjoy the Nintendo 3DS in the future."
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/07/29/nintendo-president-takes-pay-cut-in-wake-of-3ds-39-troubles.aspx
It's all over the place.
Even when it's smart to see them take action to boost sales just in time for many of their bigger games to come out. It's good to see the people responsible being accountable for their actions and decisions. I wish the govt would do something like that. A paycut for those inconsiderate jerks that spend the tax payers money in ridiculous ways.
It is nice, but however, after his massive 50% paycut he still makes over 80000 USD per month, (not to mention any shares in the company)
But i agree... he is still making bank most probably. But i agree with the gesture and sentiment. I wish more people took this attitude and man up to their mistakes.
Nobody should be expecting a "3DSi" or a 3DS "lite" at any point in the near future, I don't think. Not until at least Christmas of 2012, if even that soon (I'm not expecting it). This is the first time they've been able to update their handheld with direct system updates - and the 3DS out right now is essentially the result of years of experimentation of previous DS models. And with the exception of perhaps longer battery life (which has yet to pose a problem for me), I can't think of any changes they could make to the system that would warrant a new design release. At least not ones that wouldn't be so drastic as to no longer make it a 3DS system at all.
Guess I could be wrong, but that's what I'm feeling. Maybe we'll get some new colors over the next year or so of holiday seasons, but that's about all I'm expecting.
I'd put money on there being a new iteration of the hardware announced within four months of the Vita being on the shelves.
Faster processor, that allows for 3D AA, and 3D video capture (currently its limited to 'photos').
Decent cameras. The current ones are very bad, especially the outside 3D ones.
Higher resolution screen to kill off a few more jaggies.
Same size screens like the DS. Maybe they could even meet in the middle, and both be touchscreen 3D screens to one-up the Vita and become a 3D movie screen.
The stylus could be moved back to a decent position on the unit.
Just some of the improvements that could be made. The 3DS feels as unfinished as the original DS in my opinion.
Oh, and there were firmware updates on the DS carts