Why Nintendo’s 3DS price drop and free game offer keeps them one step ahead

We discuss how the recent announcement from Nintendo of the 3DS price drop and access to free games keeps them ahead of the competition.

[TomInc]

If anything I'm just glad that I never caved and bought virtual consile titles!

[ionicmoose]

Why? None of the games they'll be giving us are available yet?

Unless you just mean that you'll have too much to play once they give us 10 NES and 10 GBA games to plow through :P

[TomInc]

Too much to play through once they let you download :) will be a nice tie over till starfox though!

[Pikajew]

Being Nintendo makes them 10 steps a head alone and all the exclusives make them 50 steps a head for each game.

[PlayerX]

Simply Amazing.

[Raendom]

People keep saying that Mario Kart is a system seller... Is it? I had a Wii, around 2 or 3 yeara after it launched and only got it because of Metroid... Are casual console owners only in it for mario? Aren't they more concerned with their kinects now?

[DNAbro]

considering mario kart is the best selling wii game next to wii sports and one of the best selling DS games, yes mario kart is a huge system seller.

[Muletroid]

mario kart on wii and DS sold like over 20 million each

i don't know what's considered a system seller now a days but that sounds like a system seller

[Kee]

Until pokemon comes out I'm not interested in a 3DS.

[charmer]

i would say it puts the 3ds 5 steps ahead

[MoreRPG]

an $80 dollar price drop thats awesome i was looking for a reason to pay $250 for a 3DS now i dont have to

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

WOW, dropped all the way to 169.99. That was pretty fast for a price drop that big. Its almost as cheap as what the DSi is now.

I really am more tempted to buy one even though I dont really need it. it comes with free GBA games like mario, yoshi's island and metroid or something.

[mcstorm]

Well done Nintendo Giving your early 3DS fans free games for there support. Im sure with the Price drop we will start to see more and more people picking up the 3DS between now and Christmas.

[klecser]

Have I entered the Twilight Zone? A positive article about the 3DS? Refreshing.

[Raven_Nomad]

I'm definitely going to get this one now. I was tempted to get it before, but with this price drop and all the great titles coming out, it's really a no brainer right now. So much value to be had their.

[etowntwo]

Wow.... Who else thinks this is going to hamper Vitas sales.

Cause the 3DS at $250, Vita would have really had a chance to take next gen.

But $169, all the kiddies are going to want to upgrade.

[Misterhbk]

Well, I don't think the 'kiddies' cared about the price lol so that kinda doesn't make sense. The parents who buy for the Kiddies, will definitely take this into consideration though.

[silvacrest]

the kiddies as you call them, couldn't afford 169, nevermind 250

this price drop came to early and is to steep in comparison to there other consoles/handhelds

there are only two reasons why, the 3DS isn't selling as well as nintendo would want or this is a preemptive strike against the vita or...it could be both

but i'll tell you this much, if nintendo was happy with 3DS sales and didn't find vita a threat, we wouldn't be seeing a price cut this early

[tiffac]

Good move by Ninty, now the ball is in Sony's court.

[Neko_Mega]

Well, the 3DS better be $149.99 then. Because with the lack of titles I wouldn't waste much money on just buying the 3DS.

I hate to see how badly PSVita hurts 3DS if they don't have a good price drop and good titles.

[GunofthePatriots]

They nearly took $100 off the launch price. This tells me that either;
1. They tried to milk their consumers for a product that should not have been that expensive or;
2. They genuinely thought $250 was a good price.

As a 3DS owner, I regret buying the system and this latest price drop makes me regret it even more--even with the 20 free games coming to us.
The handheld as a whole is just boring. 3D works well but doesn't do anything to the gaming experience.

@below: Cool story bro. No duh nobody forced me to buy it, I bought it free will...that doesn't mean I still can't regret a purchase.
Once games like Resident Evil, Star Fox, etc.... come out, I'll be a little more happy. But as of right now, it wasn't a great purchase for ME (keyword).

[klecser]

As I 3DS owner I have no regrets having bought the system. Its ok if you have regrets because perhaps the software library doesn't appeal to you. It appeals to me. Some of us will like the Vita library more and some of us the 3DS library more. If you didn't like the launch library you probably shouldn't have bought. I bought because I liked the launch library and what was to come. Nobody forces you to buy a game system.

[Ddouble]

"Let’s remember that it took a month long network failure for Sony to offer free services to their “valued customers”, so it really does illustrate Nintendo’s awareness when it comes to keeping everyone happy"

How is it different? Sony gave free games and services because the network was down and Nintendo are giving games because they screwed the early adopters.

Nintendo knows they messed up which is why they had to make it up to the early adopters. Imagine someone who bought it yesterday now hearing that it will be $80 cheaper in 2 weeks time.

I agree with the part about the e-shop but i think Nintendo would have prefered more 3DS hardware and software been sold than to attract gamers to the e-shop so it's not really them being a step ahead. If they were a step ahead they would have launched it at the price their dropping it to.

[n4f]

well they dont have to give free stuff to there customer
remember iphone had 200$ cut and didnt give sh!t to there customer?

[g5bay]

nintendo chicken out

[White-Sharingan]

Wow...thanks for fucking early adopters Nintendo. Time to sell my 3DS, fuck it.

[silvacrest]

yeah, sell it before the retailers become wise to the almost 100$ price cut

[newn4gguy]

Sell while you can still make some good money, people.

[klecser]

LOL. Yeah, go ahead and sell. Why did you even buy it in the first place? How does this announcement now affect any of the gaming you've had prior to yesterday? How will it affect any potential enjoyment you can have in the future. If your reaction to this news is to sell your system you clearly should never have bought one in the first place.

[silvacrest]

think of it this way, i bought a 3DS, im disappointed about the software library, i contemplate selling it, then i hear that a almost 100$ price cut is coming in 2 weeks....

best case scenario - i sell it now and get a good price and if i regret selling it in the future it will be significantly cheaper

worst case - i sell it to late and get 140 max

[newn4gguy]

I sold mine about a month ago. :/ For something that came out in 2011...you'd think it would have more features. I can do Netflix on my iPhone...from ANYWHERE. The PSP has many more features than the 3DS and it's old as frick.

I bought it for 1st party games, but realized that even when they come...they aren't going to be that great. It's the same rehashed crap we've gotten for years.

[Spenok]

No shit, I will be buying one ASAP now. I have been heavily debating buying one of these lately. Looks like that will be happening much sooner now. I am a happy man :D

[zero_cool]

They dropped the price because the glassless free 3D technology employed on 3DS's top screen sucks & they don't have enough game games to warrant a purchase still!

[iceman2885]

I would actually argue that the price drop shows that Nintendo was one step behind.

I mean Sony took a huge hit and lots of criticism for selling the ps3 for a high price and then everyone basically said they were backpedaling and doing damage control when they lowered the price to a reasonable amount.

But Nintendo does the same thing by dropping the price a large amount not even a year into the system's life and they are geniuses and a step ahead...I'm confused?

[blackburn10]

Nintendo can do no wrong. Don't you know that. Everything they do is genius and everything Sony does is wrong./s. A price drop and a free game to bring up sales so early in its creation with a big middle finger to early adopters and Nintendo is a genius and one step ahead.*shakes head*

[silvacrest]

a year you say? it hasn't even been 5 months yet since the 3DS launched in most regions, this is desperation or a preemptive attack on the vita

[lizard81288]

"and ten exclusive GBA games, including Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, which (apparently) will not be available to anyone else."

I just jizzed in my pants. Sadly, i have played and or owned most of these. Wario Ware, and Mario vs DK I haven't played, and i don't think i'll be playing MF, since i already have beaten it, but, Yoshi's island is the shit. I played that so much I have 999 lives.

Anyway, I'll eat my words. I was saying there wouldn't be a price drop in the 1st year, but i was wrong. I'm sorry. But this is a much deeper cut than i expected. I was expecting it to be down to $200, but $170, wow. The DSi XL costs more.

[silvacrest]

"The DSi XL costs more"

doesn't that say it all in regards to how well the 3DS is doing?

[PygmelionHunter]

Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that none of the games mentioned will supposedly be available for purchase? I mean, no Metroid Fusion for me, Nintendo? Really?

[HallCat]

I'm not sure if the free games is a good enough for us early adopters. Most people who would've bought a 3DS early would be massive gaming fans, whi probably already played the GBA games or bought the Virtual Console games on Wii (I even played some of them back in the day in Animal Crossing for the Gamecube)