Nintendo of America: 3DS Drops To $169.99 Come August 12 In North America

by Mike Bendel on July 28, 2011 @ 1:03 am


Moments following the shock announcement of a 3DS price drop from Nintendo’s Japanese arm, the North American division has outlined plans for a stateside price drop. The 3DS will carry a suggested retail price of $169.99 starting August 12, a steep drop from its original $250 asking price.

Backed by a strong lineup of first-party titles, including Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus: Uprising, Nintendo hopes the price cut will spur momentum throughout the holiday season.

“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.”

Additionally, as a token of appreciation to early adopters, Nintendo has gift of 20 free downloadable games on the way. Anyone with a 3DS that has connected to the eShop at least once by August 11, a day before the price cut goes into effect, will be automatically registered into a loyalty program – dubbed Nintendo 3DS Ambassador. The rewards will be spread out across the remainder of this year. Details include:

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.

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.

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Comments
TeamOverload says:

I got it as a gift, so it dropping in price so suddenly doesn't really affect me directly. The free games deal sounds awesome though, so I'm pretty stoked for that. To be fair, I think the price drop was necessary, wonder if Nintendo is taking a hit on the hardware now, which is something they tend not to do.

July 28, 2011, 10:23 am
ShadowmanX5 says:

My thoughts exactly! Nintendo is normally the innovator! With the N64 it brought an analogue stick. With the DS it was new because it had 2 screens and one touch screen on a handheld, with the Wii is had motion control. All of these brought something really new but all also relied on remakes (mostly Mario or Zelda also not counting N64 lol) but with the 3DS its all been seen before, 3D is nothing really new so its mainly relying on its games which are mostly remakes an there just doesn't seem that much interest for that kind of price :\ think about it, if you had the money to choose between Xbox PS3 or 3DS which would u choose? I think its just asking too much for a handheld console so I welcome these cuts :)

July 28, 2011, 2:11 pm
Seth says:

That pretty nice of them to give you 20 free games like that..Also I think the handled has lost it's appeal. Back in the Middle school days you need to have a gameboy color, in high school you needed a GBA and later a DS since all you did after school and during lunch is play when them. Now in collage is not so much the case :(

July 28, 2011, 5:32 pm
El Diablo says:

Time to put up an add on craigslist for my 3ds.

July 28, 2011, 5:57 pm
Joey says:

Buy high, sell low... Great plan.

July 28, 2011, 6:49 pm
Riorio99 says:

I've already taken the brunt of this, buying mine at launch for

July 28, 2011, 7:14 pm
Robby says:

Good thing I haven't purchased one yet.

I'm actually considering getting one now because that's a real good price.
July 28, 2011, 10:48 pm
Deathrow says:

First of all, there is an error with your homepage. I couldn't comment on the article on the homepage, it asked me to log in when I already am logged in.

Second, you missed about half of the FULL story. Yes, Best Buy, Amazon and other retailers are having a limited sale. However, the 3DS will officially be on sale August 11th for $169 USD. For those who already own a 3DS, to make up for the money you think you lost, Nintendo has also announced 20 free titles for those already owning a 3DS. Now the list of games haven't been shown yet, but everyone is hoping for the best. I think a few were confirmed and the only one at the top of my head is Metriod Fusion. It's 10 free GBA games and 10 free NES games.
July 29, 2011, 2:26 am
TheRaiderNation says:

I wonder if Sony responds to this, and if they do respond, I wonder how. Price cut of their own? $220 Maybe. Free content? It'll be interesting to see what they do.

July 29, 2011, 7:59 am
Robby says:

I don't think Sony needs to do anything really.

July 29, 2011, 8:20 am
TheRaiderNation says:

If they want to compete with it they do. Price matters, simple as that. Same thing that happened with ps3 and wii, psp and ds. Doesn't matter the difference in hardware. Average consumer, aka the biggest market, only sees price.

July 29, 2011, 9:48 am
FrozenIpaq says:

PS Vita's price point is fine as it stands right now in terms of the feature set it is offering. The 3DS was only a small upgrade from the Nintendo DS and in my mind has just been another small iteration of the handheld like the Lite, DSi, and XL were. I have no problem paying $250 for a Vita, even if it was to go on sale today. I did however have a problem paying $250 for a slightly better DS

July 29, 2011, 7:30 pm
TheRaiderNation says:

I agree with you on every point there. I really am happy with the Vita and it's price point. Infact I've had it on pre-order since they announced the price at E3. I don't think Sony has ever tried to cheat the consumer with their hardware, they've always set a fair price point for what the consumer gets. But I'm just trying to look at it from another angle. For someone who really doesn't know the difference between the two, it's going to come down to price tag, as the DS and Wii have clearly demonstrated. I just think it's smarter for sony to maybe lower it some, not a huge $90 drop. Maybe 20, or 30. Gain a solid base, gives Sony a bigger market to sale software through, and software is where they rely on making back the money.

July 29, 2011, 7:48 pm
x3sphere says:

I don't really think Sony is trying to compete with the DS. The PSP/Vita attracts a different kind of consumer. If Vita at least outsells the PSP it'll probably be a win in Sony's book.

The 3DS was overpriced from the start, it should've been sub-$200 at launch. Nintendo thought it could take the Apple approach and that backfired on them.
July 29, 2011, 7:53 pm
Craig Fairfax says:

I kinda want one now, but I know how I am with handhelds. I'm amazed for about two weeks and then slowly I stop bringing it places, then it ends up craigslist. They just can't hold my attention.

July 30, 2011, 4:22 am
Abe Froeman says:

Same here. I can cost justify getting one now even though it'll collect dust in my bathroom.

July 30, 2011, 1:01 pm
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