3DS Price drop and Ambassador Program

[Chaos]

http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2011/07/breaking-news-nintendo-announces-major-world-wide-price-cut-for-3ds/

So, 3DS is dropping from $250 to $170, and everyone who bought it and connects to the eshop before the price drop gets 20 free virtual console games off the eshop?  Sounds good to me :3

[CherryPie]

http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2011/07/breaking-news-nintendo-announces-major-world-wide-price-cut-for-3ds/

So, 3DS is dropping from $250 to $170, and everyone who bought it and connects to the eshop before the price drop gets 20 free virtual console games off the eshop?  Sounds good to me :3

Sounds good to the consumers who are interested in 3DS Hardware, of course. But sounds very bad to analysts and shareholders of Nintendo who predicted a DS-Like hardware sales-wise. The Wii U better not be a flop.

The problem is that people have seen this already. The 3DS is a DS addon with better gfx+3D, the original DS however was extremely innovative with its dualscreen/touch combination and revolutionized the way mobile devices receive their input.

If you ask me, they should focus on what they can do best - games. Even if the 3DS is getting a new super mario, a new luigis mansion and a new mario kart, i am missing the new & innovative triple a's. I still have my hopes up for the upcomings smash bros. and an all new zelda title (my guess is a sequel to wind waker)

In short: If you found this years E3 entertaining as a 3DS-owner, you will be literally blown away by next years. But before I'm sure that will happen, I won't buy the console, even if it is $100..

[Chaos]

While the 3DS may have underperformed in regards to Nintendo?s hoped for projections, the 3D enabled handheld has still managed to sell around 830,000 copies in the United States alone since the its March 27th launch.

Hardly what I'd call a 'flop'.

Either way, yeah, pretty much all the 3DS needs is a lower price and more games to make it worthwhile.  It's halfway there.

[11clock]

Happy to see that the price dropped. However, I'm still not getting one until there are more games, or at least until Paper Mario 3DS comes out.

[Meiun]

Honestly I see the drop as mostly a bad thing. If it were succeeding as they hoped there is little to no reason for a price drop that significant. But in all honestly, I feel they have nobody to blame but themselves. I've been a pretty big nintendo fan from day one, and I even happen to think that the 3DS is a really great system. But the problem is that it's been out for months, and there is literally only one good first party title for it, and as great a game as it is, it's still a remake. There are some other good games out on the horizon, but most of the others that are coming anytime soon are remakes as well... If they want the system to succeed, they seriously need to get their heads out of their ass and actually have some good games to play here. I spent the first month or two of owning my system just going "oooh so neat, wish I actually had something to use it for."

That being said, I have confidence that they will indeed succeed and loading the shelves with some good games in the years to come, I just hope that they can do so in a timely enough manner to earn the following that the system deserves. I'd personally recommend the system to anyone, especially with the price drop. By the end of the year there should hopefully start to be at least a handful of solid games out for it.

[Scotty]

Statistically through measurements of their performance on the market, the 3DS was ineffective of Nintendo's overall share value.  In other words, their shares continued to decline even after the release of the handheld.  In my opinion, it was the cost.  $250 is a lot to ask for, for a handheld device, especially when it is released with a very limited selection of games, and even few features when compared to some of the other technologies out there (Apple, Samsung, etc...).  On March 28, A day after it's debut in Japan, they dropped a near 1k JPY in share value (~$12-$13), settling at 23990 JPY.  Even with its other release dates, they still haven't see that high of a share value, which really isn't that much when you consider their blistering hot value of 70500 JPY (~$950) they saw mid-2007 when it was impossible to find a Wii on a shelf anywhere.  Right now they're at 14100 JPY, the lowest in years.

In non-stock terms, they're declining, the 3DS didn't help their shares, and if they've learned anything from this, the Wii-U had better be dirt cheap if they expect to see an increase in share value.  I really hope they are able to get their stuff together, as I've loved (and will continue to) Nintendo as far back as my memory goes.

EDIT: I also can't fathom how they didn't see this coming.  Like Meiun said, they released the handheld with a couple of available games made for it, and one or two big titles in the following couple of months, with "promises" of many more to come (with many that suddenly got cut for one reason or another).  With such a limited selection of games, did they think everyone was gonna drop ~$300 dollars for a remake of a Zelda game that wasn't released until months after it came out?

EDIT 2:  Chris...

While the 3DS may have underperformed in regards to Nintendo?s hoped for projections, the 3D enabled handheld has still managed to sell around 830,000 copies in the United States alone since the its March 27th launch.

Hardly what I'd call a 'flop'.

Either way, yeah, pretty much all the 3DS needs is a lower price and more games to make it worthwhile.  It's halfway there.

They didn't call it a flop, they said that projected sales weren't met for the first month (and likely the following).  It sold quite a bit, but came no where near their expected sales.  That's not surprising with the limited release of games at the time of the console's debut, as well as the seemingly forgotten fact that Japan was devastated with an enormous earthquake.  What makes more sense?  Re-building your life or buying a shiny new toy?  Again, my question to Nintendo is, what did you expect?

[T-Rok]

Another thing to take into account here is that Sony was scrambling at E3 with the Vita production to keep its price as close as possible to the 3DS ($250) so they would not be outsold again due to price. It's kind of smart on Nintendos part if you ask me.

[RayRay]

Sweet! That means I can trade in my DSi and get the 3DS! I'm so glad I saved my $130.

The reason why I'm going to turn in my DSi today is because sometimes the L button and mic wouldn't respond and had to be fixed by blowing in the L button. The R button was a complete different story. The trigger inside the button was nailed in and ALWAYS gave a response. Blowing in the R button would do nothing and most of the time would mess up the circuits. After 5 months of that, I just got enraged and tore open my R button so I could pull up that tiny trigger.

I do have the necessary parts of trading it in, (the (broken) DSi, a DSi charger, and a DS pen) so I can't wait to see what the 3DS is like!

[Chaos]

@Scott:  No, they didn't call it a flop, and I never said they did.  I was replying to CherryPie's post saying that the WiiU better not flop, as though the 3DS had.

Yeah, I hear you there, Meiun.  I love the 3DS, but I can't say it hasn't spent 90% of the time I've owned it sitting on my desk while I wait for some actual games to come out.  Which is why I'm glad for the free VC games, cause it'd be nice to have SOMETHING to play other than OoT.

[Matty_Richo]

Honestly I see the drop as mostly a bad thing. If it were succeeding as they hoped there is little to no reason for a price drop that significant. But in all honestly, I feel they have nobody to blame but themselves. I've been a pretty big nintendo fan from day one, and I even happen to think that the 3DS is a really great system. But the problem is that it's been out for months, and there is literally only one good first party title for it, and as great a game as it is, it's still a remake. There are some other good games out on the horizon, but most of the others that are coming anytime soon are remakes as well... If they want the system to succeed, they seriously need to get their heads out of their ass and actually have some good games to play here. I spent the first month or two of owning my system just going "oooh so neat, wish I actually had something to use it for."

That being said, I have confidence that they will indeed succeed and loading the shelves with some good games in the years to come, I just hope that they can do so in a timely enough manner to earn the following that the system deserves. I'd personally recommend the system to anyone, especially with the price drop. By the end of the year there should hopefully start to be at least a handful of solid games out for it.

Yes,

Though in my opinion, they released a bit too early, I got mine on day 1 with a copy of Rabbids 3D, and it was cool, except for the fact that I beat it in 3 days. Then yeah, it's been sitting there doing practically nothing, I check the update every Thursday but that's about it, I think it would have been best for them to wait until around now to release it, having games like Dead or Alive, Zelda OoT, Lego Pirates etc... would have made for a somewhat better launch lineup. And sales will definitely pick up towards the end of this year as we'll see games like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 which are the games people really wanna see.

However on that note, I'm not upset that I bought it early for the full price, as it's dropping $100 in Australia and I'll be getting 20 free games (roughly $150 worth), which mind you, I probably wouldn't have otherwise bought, but it is a nice little bonus.

[Meiun]

Though in my opinion, they released a bit too early

I agree completely with that statement. I was saying before it even launched that it would have been smart for them to just wait a few months. I mean when you look and see no big 1st party titles at launch, as well as the fact that about half of the core firmware features such as the e-shop, web browser, among other things, all weren't available at launch either, it seemed rather ridiculous for them to even have been releasing it yet. Regardless, I really hope the ambassador program (as well as the upcoming launch of the Wii-U) turns things around for them. The system has a lot of potential, and it'd be a true shame to see it wasted. It would be a truly sad day if Nintendo were to ever not be one of the top video game companies anymore, and all we were left with was Microsoft and Sony competing to see who can make the best system for "generic seen-it-all-before first person shooter #4193" to be released on.

[venuse]

there is another aspect to this and that is due to the odd nature of the 3ds in the market at this time, a few higher profile games were out right cancelled with little reason. megaman legend 3, assasin creed 3ds game, saints row 3ds game, bloodrayne 3ds game not canned but on hold. i think the fact that a good number of higher profile games are getting canned is scaring nintendo into trying to get more people to buy this hand held as quick as possible so they dont loose 3rd party support for the hand held do to a lack of interest in it.

frankly these games that got canned were the games i was waiting for especially megaman legends 3. frankly this thing is a paper weight just like my wii. i question if buying the 3ds was even a worthy choice and if i should of have waited for the vita instead.

[Chaos]

THEY CANCELED MEGA MAN LEGENDS 3!?  GOD DAMNIT!

Seriously, !@#$ you Capcom.

[Meiun]

THEY CANCELED MEGA MAN LEGENDS 3!?  GOD DAMNIT!

Seriously, !@#$ you Capcom.

Yeah, they did that a while ago apparently. I was pretty disappointed about that as well, that series was great.

[Forum]

Can you still trade in a DS lite for a 3ds and save money? Also would ds games work on the 3ds?