Following this morning's news that the price for Nintendo 3DS in Japan is to drop to ¥15,000 from August 11, a fall of 40 per cent, the company has announced that the same markdown will be applied worldwide.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the drops are to speed the handheld's market penetration in time for this winter and major releases including Super Mario 3Dland and Mario Kart 7.
"So that we will be able to create momentum for Nintendo 3DS and accelerate its market penetration toward the year-end sales season, when the lineup for the applicable software shall be enriched, the Company has decided to make this markdown," he said.
Though Nintendo of Europe has declined to set a consumer price for the handheld, which was launched on February 26 in Japan and in late March in Europe and North America, it will slash its trade price to retailers by a third during the second financial quarter - between now and September.
Nintendo of America, meanwhile, is dropping the 3DS price from $249.99 to $169.99 from August 12, a drop of a third.
US and European 3DS owners needn't be disappointed that they've missed the price drop, though - Nintendo will be opening a Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Programme which will enable them to download 20 Virtual Console games for free from the Nintendo eShop. The offer comprises ten NES games and ten Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games.
"Ambassadors" will have exclusive access to 10 Game Boy Advance games including Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
3DS' price drop comes less than six months after its launch - comparatively, the first price drop for DSi in Japan came a year after its launch, the first Game Boy Advance price drop in Europe also came a year after launch, and the first PSP price drop in the US came two years after its launch.
Nintendo 3DS sold 710,000 units worldwide in the last quarter, as revealed by Nintendo's financial results today.
Comments
3The 3DS is the N64 of this (next?) gen.
Glad i bought one last week, oh wait....
This is why you are supposed to buy it for a number of games that you really want, not just to buy it for the sake of buying it. Otherwise it just comes back to burn you. I have no sympathy for anyone foolish enough to buy one already.