Nintendo slashes price of slow-selling 3DS

[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!