Nintendo slashes price of slow-selling 3DS

[HaRuMaN]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/07/28/nintendo.price.drop.3ds.frum/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

The gist:

On August 12, the 3DS' price will drop in the United States from $249.99 to $169.99.

[Ginsu Victim]

Wow, an $80 drop! That's nuts.

[Vigo]

I wouldn't be so quick to cook the 3DS. The virtual boy had blinding flaws from square one. For most 3DS naysayers, the price was the only big linchpin. Now that they are selling it for the price that it should have been released under, and releasing some 1st party games, it could very well take off.

[Anpanman]

More importantly, Nintendo lowered it's fiscal prediction for the year from 110 billion yen down to only 20 million.   

[Malenko]

More importantly, Nintendo lowered it's fiscal prediction for the year from 110 billion yen down to only 20 million.   

The company is 39 million units short of projected sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, and has cut financial projections for the year from 110 billion yen to 20 billion yen -- a plunge of 82 percent.

[Donkbaca]

I knew it!  Now I need to find that 3DS thread from a few months ago and tell everyone I was right....

[Mikezilla]

I knew it!  Now I need to find that 3DS thread from a few months ago and tell everyone I was right....

I think we all had a post in that thread somewhere... I remember. 

Im still not interested even though the price went down so much, I think Im just not a handheld person. I dont care about gaming enough to invest that kind of money.

I was right too, cause I said parents wouldnt spend that much money to buy their kids something they already have. Yeah donk, go ahead and dip up that thread. 

[versapak]

Being that the 3DS's price was my only bone of contention, that price drop did it for me. Will be buying mine in August for sure.

[Howard_Casto]

Ditto... remember when I said that I wouldn't be getting one until it dropped below the 160 mark because it would do that before any interesting games would be released?

I'm sure somebody will have a coupon sale or something and I can get it at my favorite price point.

[Howard_Casto]

Oh I don't know if anyone actually read the link (I had already heard about the drop so I didn't) but for you sucker.... err I mean early adopters:

"Current users who connect to the company's eShop before August 11 will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program, which will allow 3DS owners to get the 20 games for free. "

[Donkbaca]

Those 20 games are virtual console NES and GBA games. Congrats early adopters, you get to play the sMe games as someone with a jailbroken psp

[ChadTower]

Anyway, just because I'm one of those "gotta have it" types I'll probably get one of these 3DS things at this price drop... but I bet the incentives will get even better around christmas..

I probably count as a "gotta have it" type but I usually wait until they hit yard sales.   

[Well Fed Games]

A lack of good, exclusive games is the real problem. Systems are great, but software is the reason they exist.

[Donkbaca]

 

[Vigo]

For as new as the system is, the 3DS seems to be putting enough 1st party games out. I'm actually kinda shocked. Of course, Zelda is a cheap out release but they are releasing a Mario Kart, Mario Land, Star Fox and Kid Icarus in the near future. They also are set to come out with Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario, and Smash Bros in Early 2012.

There are also a lot of exclusives coming out as well - 2 unique Resident Evil Games...new shinobi, Contra and Ninja Gaiden games, Professor Layton, phoenix wright, kingdom hearts, final fantasy, a new DOA and Tekken, those arcade remake/spinoff games - Pacman/Galaga, Centipede, Frogger.

  I don't see lack of exclusive games the problem, not to mention that there is incentive to buy non-exclusive games on the 3DS for the reason of 3D. I would buy the remake of Metal Gear Solid 3 if I was more into buying handheld games these days.

[Donkbaca]

They should have waited until they had more games read before they launched it.  The Vita is supposed to have like 80 games or something like that at launch

[Howard_Casto]

To be fair they are titles on a sony handheld, so maybe 2 or them might be playable. 

In other news you've gotta like Nintendo's style. 

What does an American company do when somebody screws up and they lose millions?  They blame the lowly workers of course and fire a bunch of them. 

What does Nintendo do?  Iwata and the other fixed salary CEOs take a voluntary pay cut to help make up for lost sales.  Iwata himself cut his pay by 50%!


Mind you none of the ceos are going to the poor house from this, but it's refreshing to see a company that actually has some sense and cuts cost at the top first instead of hte bottom.

[Donkbaca]

True, there aren't many games on the PSP I enjoy playing, I mostly use it for emulators.

That is refreshing.  But that is a lot of how Japanese style companies run.  That is how a lot of private companies in the US run too.

[Donkbaca]

The original DS didn't sell all that great, it wasn't until they tweaked it a bit that it got moving.

Usually things don't get their prices slashed this soon without any competition.   Price cuts like this are usually when products are later in the production cycle, or when they are faced with competition.  If this thing doesn't sell well in the upcoming holiday season, I could see Nintendo saying f-it, and discontinuing the whole thing.

What's crazy is the initial sales projection for this thing.  Don't see how they could have possibly thought it would do that much better than it actually has.  Just shows the overall arrogance of Nintendo and their over dependence on fan boys snapping up their products. 

Having missed the mark on this thing as bad as they did.  I bet they should be nervous as hell about the WiiU

[shateredsoul1979]

mudda fuka

 

I don't want 10 NES and 10 GBA games, give me my money back

[Howard_Casto]

The original DS didn't sell all that great, it wasn't until they tweaked it a bit that it got moving.

Usually things don't get their prices slashed this soon without any competition.   Price cuts like this are usually when products are later in the production cycle, or when they are faced with competition.  If this thing doesn't sell well in the upcoming holiday season, I could see Nintendo saying f-it, and discontinuing the whole thing.

What's crazy is the initial sales projection for this thing.  Don't see how they could have possibly thought it would do that much better than it actually has.  Just shows the overall arrogance of Nintendo and their over dependence on fan boys snapping up their products. 

Having missed the mark on this thing as bad as they did.  I bet they should be nervous as hell about the WiiU

Well ironically nintendo's competition is nintendo.  I don't hear a lot of people who have a ds complaining about how outdated the ds is.  Sure it isn't capable of top teir graphics, but nintendo proved itself back in the gameboy years that graphics flat out don't matter on a handheld.  I still play my DS almost daily.

Also when you release a 270 dollar handheld and then say taht next year you are releasing a new home console and it will be expensive, you've got to think that many people that would have bought the 3ds, are waiting.... because home console typically trumps handheld in terms of priority, at least in the US. 

I don't think it's arrogance on Nintendo's part, I just think they missed the mark on this one.  Due to the *ahem* interesting choices with the first party titles released on the 3ds, you can't really tell any graphical difference between games on it and on the DS.  It's one thing to SAY something is more powerful, but you've actually got to show it.  The few games that did show off some graphical prowess in the third party side of things were actually downports of console titles that were over two years old, which isn't all the appealing. 

They honestly thought the whole psuedo 3d gimmick would astound people and quite frankly it's pretty lame. 

The thing hurts my eyes to be honest.  Not virtual boy  "dear god I can't see green anymore" hurt, but still.

[Donkbaca]

Well ironically nintendo's competition is nintendo

Really?  So people either buy nintendo or buy nothing? They have a nintendo budget? There is no substitute for nintendo?

I don't hear a lot of people who have a ds complaining about how outdated the ds is.

That is because most children don't have a frame of reference


I don't think handhelds and consoles are competing goods, even if your premise is right, that people aren't buying the 3DS because they are holding out for a home console, then it shows Nintendo made another bad strategic choice in releasing the 3DS

Its not that they missed the mark, its that they were aiming the wrong direction.

[Howard_Casto]

Well ironically nintendo's competition is nintendo

Really?  So people either buy nintendo or buy nothing? They have a nintendo budget? There is no substitute for nintendo?

I don't hear a lot of people who have a ds complaining about how outdated the ds is.

That is because most children don't have a frame of reference


I don't think handhelds and consoles are competing goods, even if your premise is right, that people aren't buying the 3DS because they are holding out for a home console, then it shows Nintendo made another bad strategic choice in releasing the 3DS

Its not that they missed the mark, its that they were aiming the wrong direction.

Yup you got it in one. 

There is no subsititute for Nintendo... at least as far as handhelds go.  How many did they kill again?  Nomad, Game Gear, Neo-Geo Pocket, Lynx, n-gage (ok that one killed itself) wonder swan, and I think there are a few more.  Only Sony has been able to gain any ground at all.  That's why when people ask microsoft if they are going to make a hand held their response is a polite "hell no!". 

More people than children get a DS, as a matter of fact the average age, like most game systems, is in the 18-25 category.  But even assuming what you say is true it doesn't matter why people aren't complaining, they just aren't complaining so the point still stands. 


Well Nintendo was in an akward position.  DS sales are finally starting to slow down a bit.  If they didn't eventually release a brand new handheld then they risk people jumping ship to Sony's new offering or losing brand recognition for the next go around.   On the other hand if they waited until the 3ds was actually ready for release then it would have essentially been released just a hair before the wii U... so they would be competing with their selves in an even more direct sense.  They took a gamble by releasing it early and it failed.

Nintendo's only had one complete stinker in their entire history so I'm sure 3ds sales will eventually turn around. 

[Donkbaca]

From what I recall, sales didn't really take off until the Ds lite came out. I could be wrong though, thats happened at least once

[GibsonRiddler]

From what I recall, sales didn't really take off until the Ds lite came out. I could be wrong though, thats happened at least once

Every Nitendo release is slow the first year. They had a couple of good launch titles and Ridge Racer. DS was slow then Nitendogs came out then the new version of Pokemon. After that there were shortages of systems.

[Mikezilla]

From what I recall, sales didn't really take off until the Ds lite came out. I could be wrong though, thats happened at least once

Every Nitendo release is slow the first year. They had a couple of good launch titles and Ridge Racer. DS was slow then Nitendogs came out then the new version of Pokemon. After that there were shortages of systems.

Thats because kids want them, and their parents buy them, for the Nintendogs and ---smurfin--- Pokemon. Who the hell do you know, besides maybe one of your nerd ass girlfriends would ever play nintendogs?! Besides a kid who lives in an apartment and cant have a real one. 

[ChadTower]

Those games are big in Japan.  Adults do play them there.  This is only one market for Nintendo.

[Donkbaca]

Well the market has more or less spoken that the 3ds is not worth 249 bucks, whether or not its worth 169 is something we will see.  Personally, I just don't see it competing with iphones and tablets where the casual gamers can pick up a game for 5 bucks or less, and I don't see a compelling reason for a ds user to upgrade.  We will see though.  The fascinating thing for me is how badly Nintendo missed the mark on the projected sales of this thing

[Mikezilla]

Those games are big in Japan.  Adults do play them there.  This is only one market for Nintendo.

I suppose youre right, but that market is crazy, have you seen some of the weird ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- they play over there? Its nuts. As Donk stated, they blew the mark with the projected sales, I was reading about that the other day, I forgot how much, but it went to something around 80 million to like 20 or something.

[shateredsoul1979]

You know, it would be even better if they just gave first adopters vouchers to 2 free games. That way everyone could get Mario Kart and Mario 3DS, but nooo we get really old games that we probably have already played.

[ChadTower]

If the market really is software driven it would be sort of stupid to give out marquee titles for free to everybody who had already spent their money.  Early adopters get hit for their impatience.  That's how this market works.

[Donkbaca]

Of course its software driven, people buy these gizmos to play games on them, its all about the games.  I imagine there might be a few that buy it for the hardware, but those people are in the minority...

There is a market incentive to make sure that your customers don't feel ripped off, and getting marquee titles in the hands of loyal customers is a good way to 1) continue goodwill with early adopters so they aren't as gun shy about early adopting in the future; and 2) get your game out there to people to get the buzz out.

Of course, I think Nintendo feels that the early adopters are nintendo fan boys who feel that nintendo rulz, so I don't think they feel much of an incentive to placate that crowd

[ChadTower]

There is a market incentive to make sure that your customers don't feel ripped off

Erm, no there isn't.  Not in electronics.  There is a market incentive to rape early adopters and then lower the price for normal people while laughing at early adopters' blood on the pavement.  That's what Apple does and it works out pretty well for them.

[Mikezilla]

There is a market incentive to make sure that your customers don't feel ripped off

Erm, no there isn't.  Not in electronics.  There is a market incentive to rape early adopters and then lower the price for normal people while laughing at early adopters' blood on the pavement.  That's what Apple does and it works out pretty well for them.

Chad got you there Donk. Pretty much nailed it.

[Vigo]

Sad but true.  Early adopters do not get anything other than the ability to rub it in everyone else's face that they have the product before everyone else. For many people, that alone is enough incentive.

[shateredsoul1979]

Well, the psp vita may come out in october according to rumors. Anyone else looking to be taken advantage of by another corporation?

[Donkbaca]

You will have to wait a while.  The Wiiu is on par with the PS3/xbox.  MS is probably going to wait a couple of years and see how much they can milk out of the kinect.  Sony PS3's are still pricey, and SOny doesn't seem positioned to make that jump since they are having all sorts of issues right now.

[Mikezilla]

I'm ready for a new real console with shinier graphics, to be honest. The Xbox 360 and PS3 are getting pretty stale.

How much shinier can they get!? I like that they havent had a new generation come out so ill have to blow more money on a new console and making the other ones obsolete.

[Donkbaca]

How much shinier can they get!?

I think this has been said for every console since the SNES. 

[Vigo]

Sure it's been said, but not considered seriously until now...the graphics plateau is coming. I think we have one more substantial visual upgrade left before there is little incentive left to strictly improve upon video game graphics for a new gen console.

It will probably be a secondary, minor improvement statistic until photo-realistic graphics become a possibility. 

[Bootay]

Sad but true.  Early adopters do not get anything other than the ability to rub it in everyone else's face that they have the product before everyone else. For many people, that alone is enough incentive.

I agree with this. I remember a friend of mine buying the first wave Widescreen Plasma TVs. It was a 42' and this was waay back in like 2003 when they were $6-8k. He thought he was the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- until later on when he found that

A) There was no HDMI so when HDMI became the standard he had to upgrade.
B) It only did 720p so when 1080p came out he had to upgrade
C) There was no way to watch HD content unless you bought an $800 Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player because there was no service out yet that I knew of
D) It had major burn in

Look at 360 early adopters...RROD. LOL
Look at HD-DVD early Adopters...LOL
What about Betamax and Laserdisc....the list goes on.

---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- I remember being a CD-Burner early adopter. I paid $100 for a 1x burner and there was no such thing as IDE burners so I had to buy a SCSI card for an additional $100 and wait 1 hour to burn something while making sure I do not touch my computer because even the slighted activity would cancel the burn due to buffer underun. Which also meant you couldn't have a screensaver on because even that would cause the crash. LOL

When I think back to how it was then and how it is now I laugh.  

[Ginsu Victim]

while making sure I do not touch my computer because even the slighted activity would cancel the burn due to buffer underun. Which also meant you couldn't have a screensaver on because even that would cause the crash. LOL

Man, talk about something I DO NOT miss. I spent way too much back then, and many of those discs don't even work now.

[Donkbaca]

Because then they would have to share the profits to license their software on whatever hardware they put it on, and might not have 100% creative control.  Also, if Zelda were on every platform, it would be just another action RPG, in my opinion and mario kart would be just another kiddie racer.  Finally, they would have to release more than one in house game every two years, as they do now, to make money...

[ChadTower]

...or because they'd have to write games that look like PS3 and 360 games and that would make them cost a whole lot more to implement.

[Vigo]

I'm still waiting for that sequel to Eternal Darkness. I can guarantee if they started publishing games geared to the average gamer again, their ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- would look like it was together.

[GibsonRiddler]

From what I recall, sales didn't really take off until the Ds lite came out. I could be wrong though, thats happened at least once

Every Nitendo release is slow the first year. They had a couple of good launch titles and Ridge Racer. DS was slow then Nitendogs came out then the new version of Pokemon. After that there were shortages of systems.

Thats because kids want them, and their parents buy them, for the Nintendogs and ---smurfin--- Pokemon. Who
the hell do you know, besides maybe one of your nerd ass girlfriends would ever play nintendogs?! Besides a kid
who lives in an apartment and cant have a real one. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#Nintendo_DS

Nintendogs sold 23 million copies. Out sold everything else except other Nintendo titles.

Nintendo can afford to lose money on this system until new software comes out.
I'm hoping the Sony Vita can do well but they didn't have a good track record with the psp before the system got hacked.

[Donkbaca]

Except losing money on a system is completely against their corporate philosophy.

My guess is their trying to save face and don't want to pony up to the fact that they picked a loser before the launch of the Wiiu

[GibsonRiddler]

That is true the Reps from Nintendo that I dealt with use to always tell me that the big N would never release a system unless they made money from day 1. They also liked like to say Nintendo also had a large cash reserve on hand, wasn't to hard to believe since the Gameboy pretty much printed money for them.

[danny_galaga]

Dunno why anyone would rag on early adopters. It's their valiant spending on early tech that helps bring prices down. I say hooray for richer people than me (which is most people actually)

[Bootay]

Dunno why anyone would rag on early adopters. It's their valiant spending on early tech that helps bring prices down. I say hooray for richer people than me (which is most people actually)

Oh I'm not ragging on them. I have been one several times...I usually get burned though so now I tend to wait. But yes I agree that without early adopters everything would fail due to not selling.

[Donkbaca]

Well yes and no.  They CAN lead to lower prices if its the situation where there can be manufacturing efficiencies gained with future production runs, and/or if larger volumes can lead to economies of scale.  
Basically it can go in one of several ways:
1) its a new product where the above is possible, there is enough demand to establish a market, so the company lowers prices in order to gain more customers.  This is the scenario you outlined.  But it could also be that:
2)Its a product that is succesful enough, and has a market large enough to invite competition, leading to price discrimination.
3) There is enough of a market that the product is viable, but not enough to realize efficiencies,or invite competition in which case prices don't change and it becomes a niche product
4) That the product becomes successful enough that prices don't change, despite increased efficiencies, because demand is so strong that a price cut would only lead to decreased profits.  See the ipad for this one.

So early adopters only lead to lower prices where there is enough early action to justify a market and where the producing company feels that it can maximize profits by lowering costs, passing the savings on to customers and increasing sales.  They can also lead to lower prices if the success of a product invites competition leading to price discrimination strategies.  

[ark_ader]

while making sure I do not touch my computer because even the slighted activity would cancel the burn due to buffer underun. Which also meant you couldn't have a screensaver on because even that would cause the crash. LOL

Man, talk about something I DO NOT miss. I spent way too much back then, and many of those discs don't even work now.

Ahh the old Pioneers.....

I even remember those Shugart 12 inch WORMs.

[Vigo]

FYI - This weekend gamestop is offering the 3DS for $99 with trade in of a (non-fat) DS:

http://www.ign.com/blogs/interoceter/2011/08/11/gamestop-offering-3ds-for-99-this-weekend-0812-0814



Edit: It does say you need to be a power up rewards member to get $99, but slickdeals says that is not necessary:

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3195474

Best just to call your gamestop in advance just in case.

[versapak]

FYI - This weekend gamestop is offering the 3DS for $99 with trade in of a (non-fat) DS:

http://www.ign.com/blogs/interoceter/2011/08/11/gamestop-offering-3ds-for-99-this-weekend-0812-0814

Yep.


I will definitely be buying one tomorrow.

[northerngames]

I still have enough ds games to last until there $99 or less.

only thing I would give gamestop is a swift kick to the nuts only thing there good at is ripping kids off and making silly promo's to persway kids to pre-order their $60.00+ dollar game that so and so store is selling for $49.99 and you can get the promo off ebay for a couple bucks so in the end they ripped off them kids each and all just for a couple more bucks.

they need to go bankrupt but it will never happen they rip people off to much for that to happen.

 

[Blanka]

I will definitely be buying one tomorrow.

But will you buy its games?
Guess Nintendo's biggest problem is that PS3/XBOX 360 games cost 29.99 € here max, iPhone games do 10$ max, where they ask 49.99€, even for 3DS games! And they wine about piracy. Come on Nintendo, lower your game prizes.

[danny_galaga]

I will definitely be buying one tomorrow.

But will you buy its games?
Guess Nintendo's biggest problem is that PS3/XBOX 360 games cost 29.99 € here max, iPhone games do 10$ max, where they ask 49.99€, even for 3DS games! And they wine about piracy. Come on Nintendo, lower your game prizes.

PS3 games are 30 euros? Man, we get shafted in Australia. 30 euros works out to about 40 bucks here. Buy a PS3 game here, is about 100 bucks    Stayed that way even when the dollar improved heaps over the last year.

[Blanka]

I just did a quick scan in the Sinterklaas (the guy that got fed up with überfat hamburgers by Americans and gained 50 kg's, then got shifted towards Christmas by coca cola, and infected way to hot countries like Spain and Australia to have a lot of fake pine tree decorations around Christmas) holiday book from a toy store that landed in my mailbox yesterday. They might not sell the hot and must have titles for hardcore gamers, as the guide is made to have kids beg for toys.
Anyway, you can always order in Germany (the cheapest country in the EU with the cheapest mail service as well), as Australia shares the EU region code. But I bought my Katamari's in AUS since they where almost free there!