Nintendo 3DS dropping to $169.99

[Bolivar]

Nintendo slashes 3DS price to $170, announces 3DS Ambassadors program | Warp Zoned (http://www.warpzoned.com/?p=11701)

So yeah, is this the fastest price cut ever? After only a few months of being available, the 3DS will shortly be $169.99.

I know I've talked a lot of crap about the 3DS, but considering this is how much I paid for my DS Lite at a time when it too had a new Mario game coming out for it... I really have no excuse now!!!

"Just when I thought I was out..."

[Shattered Dreamer]

To be honest I'm still not tempted! Apart from Ocarina Of Time (which I can play on a N64 emulator) there's nothing about the 3DS I would want. Maybe if I played one I'd feel different? My younger cousin who was over the weekend had one but I never thought to ask him could I have a go, oh well

[Jessweeee♪]

I think that was the price of the original DS at launch! Still, I'm not at a time in my life where I can shell out that much money for vidya games :<

[Polnareff]

The DS actually launched at 149.99. That said I would rather wait until the 3DS drops to 129.99 before getting one, which will most likely happen within the next few months, since there's not many games on it and there isn't gonna be until around November. I'm already seeing used ones go for about 180 bucks and it's not helping sales.

With Capcom canceling Mega Man Legends 3 there is no reason for me to get the 3DS, outside of the two RE games and DoA Dimensions.

And thanks a lot, Nintendo, for only allowing people who adopted the 3DS early (for god knows what reason) to have their pick of free games that won't even be on the service after August 12. :|

[Del Murder]

I'll wait until some better games are out before I buy, like Super Mario or Star Fox. Maybe the price will be even lower by then.

[Jessweeee♪]

So far the only game I'm interested in for 3DS is the Professor Layton/Ace Attorney crossover.

[Slothy]

Nintendo must be pretty desperate to increase sales. A price cut of about $80 on a handheld within a few months of launch is insane.

Not insane enough to make me want one. Honestly, I was really only interested in Mega Man Legends 3 for the system, so there would have to be a sizable miracle from Capcom, and a deeper price cut to get me to buy it for one game.

[ljkkjlcm9]

Guess I'm one of the few who own one. My two games that I have right now are both great games... Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars and Zelda (never played the master quest so finally doing so). I thank them for the 20 free games, really helps take away that 80 price sting, especially since it probably works out to be about the same, if not a bit more than 80 dollars for those games!

Add to that the fact of all these awesome games coming like Kid Icarus and Mario of course, and that I never had Starfox 64, I'm looking forward to this fall. Honestly the lack of tons of great titles has probably been better for me, because when there are lots of great titles, I buy them all and some just sit there for months waiting to be played anyways. This has helped pace me better and truly enjoy the two titles I had.

As for "desperate to increase sales," it's not selling as well as they hoped, but it isn't selling horribly either. The DS did pretty bad when it first launched as well. I think this is more a reaction to the Vita's pricing, which almost everyone thought would be much more expensive. I think Nintendo probably overpriced it in the first place expecting the Vita to be higher.

THE JACKEL

[Del Murder]

I agree that this is probably more related to Vita's lower than expected price than it is to low sales or lack of games.

[Bolivar]

Wow just looked it up and the DS Lite was actually $129.99 at launch... what an amazing system and time for games...

ANYWAY, I think the price drop makes it pretty enticing considering zelda just came out and the holiday lineup is pretty nice. On the one hand, Ocarina is much more than a 3D-enabled port, it's definitely been brought more in line with the modern age, and you could really just play it in 2D as an enhanced remake and have a blast. Super Mario 3DS is looking amazing, it reminds me a lot of the excitement surrounding New Super Mario Bros. I think it makes the 3DS just an enticing option, for me at least.

I'm also wondering if they'll use Mario as a platform to demonstrate the kinds of games possible on the system, much like NSMB was. I had been using palm devices on and off for years before the DS came out, but every game on NSMB was better than any palm game I had played up to that point. Do you think they could do the same for 3D, to differentiate it as offering something different for gameplay as well as visuals?

I know the system has had a slow start and led to games getting delayed or cancelled. If you were looking forward to Mega Man Legends 3 I definitely suggest checking out the post in our forums about the movement to bring it back. Yes, a lot of movements hardly have a chance at all but these people seem to have a pretty good grasp on things and it only takes a minute of your time to help out, register as a servbot, etc.

As far as the Vita, this does strike a pretty hard blow against Sony, especially because I think there's a feeling, delays and cancellations aside, that this is going to have some seriously killer games coming to it. Eventually. The Vita does an incredible amount of cool stuff and has some of the coolest online community features I've ever heard of, but this puts Nintendo back in the game for me. I'm probably going to get one of the two this holiday season, but I'm not as certain as to which one it would be as I was a day ago.

[champagne supernova]

According to IGN, the Vita might be launching in fall, which means that Nintendo needs to increase market share now. A price-cut makes sense. Whether it will make much of a difference will have to be seen because the DS' biggest problem hasn't been its price-tag, but its lack of killer games.

[CimminyCricket]

I'm still debating on whether or not I'm going to get the 3DS, even with the price cut. I still play my DS Lite a lot and I still have some GBA games that I play and I don't like using my GBA (I have one of the tiny ones that looks like an NES controller) because it's so small.

[Pike]

I'd buy it for OoT alone (I have no access to the original at this time) but I'm completely broke.

Maybe someday in the future, I won't be, at which point I'll definitely be getting it.

[Del Murder]

OOT was a great game, but it's not really something I have the desire to play over and over, like with the original Zelda or A Link to the Past. Does the remake update it at all or add anything new?

[Bastian]

OOT was a great game, but it's not really something I have the desire to play over and over, like with the original Zelda or A Link to the Past. Does the remake update it at all or add anything new?

Yes, and yes. First of all it's in 3-fricken-D, dude. Second of all it has been completely remade from scratch with much better models and textures and animations and on and on (curiously, though, while the music was remade from scratch, it was remade to sound exactly like the old N64 version).

Also, it adds a Master Quest unlockable after completing the game, wherein enemies hit twice as hard dungeons are remixed the landscape is flipped puzzles are a little different.

And then there's the boss rush mode.

Anyway.

Nintendo completely mismanaged the launch. They have done NOTHING to sell people on the awesome features of the 3DS: the glasses free 3D itself. I can see why that may be difficult to explain since it's something that can only be experienced in person, but they should have done more to make it experienceable.

The augmented reality stuff is mind of mindblowing. They should have had more adverts that make use of that.

They finally added Netflix. Well, that should have been available at launch. And you know what else should have been? The ability to stream glasses free 3D movies. There's no other portable device that can do that. The 3DS CAN, but they still haven't made that function available.

And the ability to take 3D pics and vids. It CAN but they haven't made a big deal about that and they should because that's pretty freaking awesome.

And its horsepower? Where the hell is the marketing talking about how much better it is than the 3DS? Nowhere. Nintendo doesn't like to talk about horsepower (the Wii U is much more powerful than the xbox 360, according to game devs, but Nintendo refuse to brag about it. Or even talk about it) but people need to know that it's not JUST a DS with glasses free 3D, but a completely brand new device.

And the launch games. Abysmal. Nintendo should have had a major first party game (OoT or Super Mario 3DS) at launch instead of months after and major third party games at launch as well.

With the price cut and the slowly forthcoming titles (can't wait to play Super Mario 3DS and Kid Icarus!) and a new take on marketing, I think the 3DS will turn out just fine. It's just stupid that Nintendo f'ed the launch up so bad.

[Pheesh]

OOT was a great game, but it's not really something I have the desire to play over and over, like with the original Zelda or A Link to the Past. Does the remake update it at all or add anything new?

Yes, and yes. First of all it's in 3-fricken-D, dude. Second of all it has been completely remade from scratch with much better models and textures and animations and on and on (curiously, though, while the music was remade from scratch, it was remade to sound exactly like the old N64 version).

Also, it adds a Master Quest unlockable after completing the game, wherein enemies hit twice as hard dungeons are remixed the landscape is flipped puzzles are a little different.

And then there's the boss rush mode.

So basically no.

[Slothy]

So basically no.

Pretty much what I was thinking. While the master quest might be an interesting challenge for those who have beaten the game plenty of times before, I can not care less about 3D. It's stupid. When I start seeing developers use it in a way that actually adds something new to the gameplay then I may start to give a rats ass, but until then, it's nothing but a gimmick that cuts the battery life to around 3 hours and jacked the price up at launch, and which a sizable percentage of the population can't even see properly. And while the idea of having to wear glasses to view 3D never appealed to me, the idea of 3D that requires me to hold a handheld console in exactly the right position to view it properly appeals to me even less.


The augmented reality stuff is mind of mindblowing. They should have had more adverts that make use of that.

They finally added Netflix. Well, that should have been available at launch. And you know what else should have been? The ability to stream glasses free 3D movies. There's no other portable device that can do that. The 3DS CAN, but they still haven't made that function available.

And the ability to take 3D pics and vids. It CAN but they haven't made a big deal about that and they should because that's pretty freaking awesome.

Those may be interesting features, but they're not something I care about if I'm buying a handheld. My dislike of 3D aside, I'm buying a handheld for the games it can play. So far, that seems to be limited to a remake of OoT, with not a whole lot to look forward to this year beyond a re-release of Star Fox 64 and apparently a new Mario Kart if Wikipedia is correct. That's a pretty lean first year, with not a lot more to look forward to going into next year. Is it any wonder Nintendo are now doing something highly unusual for them and taking a loss on every 3DS to try and sell more units?


And its horsepower? Where the hell is the marketing talking about how much better it is than the 3DS? Nowhere. Nintendo doesn't like to talk about horsepower (the Wii U is much more powerful than the xbox 360, according to game devs, but Nintendo refuse to brag about it. Or even talk about it) but people need to know that it's not JUST a DS with glasses free 3D, but a completely brand new device.

Better naming might has helped here as I've never been totally convinced that the casual gamers or parents who don't know much about games would realize it's not just the umpteenth revision of the DS. But Nintendo would have a hard fight in terms of marketing horsepower with this. If they wanted to go that road, then they'd only have until the Vita releases sometime in the fall to do it. At that point they stop being the most powerful handheld on the market. And I've always felt that marketing based on power alone is a fool's gambit given that the most powerful system hasn't won out in sales in a very long time.

And I would like to point out that I'm not sure how they thought they'd get away with a launch price that high for the 3DS. It literally launched at the same price the Wii originally did. I might be able to see the core market buying at that price given the jump in specs from the DS (though a competitor releasing a more powerful handheld later the same year for about the same price makes even that difficult), but not the more casual market, or the parents buying these things for their kids.

[Agent Proto]

Sorry to burst your bubbles about the Netflix featuring 3D movies Bastian, but sadly that's not that case. While the 3DS could handle it, there are currently no 3D movies to watch on the handheld device with Netflix.

[ljkkjlcm9]

Between Starfox 64, Kid Icarus, Super Mario Land 3D, and Mario Kart 7.... that's 4 games this Fall. Considering I limit myself to max 2 games a month, and I have titles lined up on my PS3 to purchase like Assassin's Creed, Dark Souls etc. I consider that a great season of games. Granted, they are all first party, but that's 90% of the reason to ever buy a nintendo system. It's a good system, and the graphics are significantly better than the DS, and yes 3D is essentially a "gimmic" (I refuse to see 3D movies), but that doesn't make it a bad system. People never seemed to complain when games used to just be graphical upgrades, and that's what the 3DS is. It has some other features as well, but since when is improving graphics a bad thing? And the biggest complaint is the battery life.... Unless you're flying somewhere or long extensive road trips without a break, it's really not that bad a battery life. Secondly, I turned the 3D on for boss fights and cut scenes for Zelda, and played in 2D the rest of the time, and it certainly intensified those situations. The fact that it can be turned on and off is awesome, and you really shouldn't be using it constantly anyways.

Can I understand why people don't find it worthwhile now? Yes. Do i think it will be worthwhile after this holiday leading into next year? Definitely.

THE JACKEL

[Polnareff]

Vivi brought up something really interesting that I forgot to touch on. Mainly that due to the lack of marketing, most people tend to think that the 3DS is just another DS. Hell, even the people working at game stores think the same thing. While it basically is a DS in certain ways, it's a much more powerful DS and is different than the others in enough ways to be called something new.

A rename DEFINITELY would have helped.

[champagne supernova]

So basically Nintendo hired Sony's launch marketing team?

[Del Murder]

So the Star Fox game is basically a rerelease of Star Fox 64 and not a new game? Shucks. :(

[Wolf Kanno]

With one exception (and one I begrudgingly regret) I pretty much never buy a new system at launch or for the promise of its future capabilities from specs.

I'm waiting until the 3DS has something I'm interested in. For now its ports from a console I personally never liked (N64 was an awful system) and ports of other games I already own, I don't see the need to rush out and buy it. I'll wait until it finally has something I really want. The same goes for the Vita which has yet to have a single game announced for it that I might actually give a damn about let alone shell out the money to buy the damn thing.

So I'm sticking to my usual stance that software makes the hardware, not its features or specs.

[Rostum]

I think for me (or many Australians), the fact that it's region locked is a huge turn off. Australians pay way too much for games, so it's always been nice to import, especially since our dollar is stronger than the US.

Other than that I'd still want one, but I'd have to see a better line up of games coming out. OoT and a possible MM would be nice to play though, I haven't played them since the N64 days.

[Bolivar]

WOW you know it's bad when i'm the most excited one for a Nintendo move.

First of all, yes, put like how it's been, OoT doesn't seem that drastic, but again, the everything's been cleaned up to such a level, it's far more than a 3D port. All the ugly, basic-geometry of the original has been cleaned up and looks pretty damn good on its own as a 2D game, like Jackal said, the 3D makes it that much more intense. But you could play it in 2D and it's an impressive overhaul on its own.

Star Fox is being directed by the original creator of the series, Dylan Cuthbert, of Q-Games who's largely known for the awesome PixelJunk series on PSN. I can't say how much of a difference that'll translate to from the original, but at the very least it's going to be an awesome entertainment package.

Mario Kart may not make it seem like such a stellar Fall lineup but I really think Super Mario is being underplayed, and it rounds it out to a pretty good one. It looks pretty damn great to me :(

Anyway like I said this doesn't make it a clear winner over the Vita to me, I still think making an entire handheld based around the gimmick of 3D is dumb, but definitely from the software perspective it's making the $180 price tag very attractive.

[TrollHunter]

Also, it adds a Master Quest unlockable after completing the game, wherein enemies hit twice as hard dungeons are remixed the landscape is flipped puzzles are a little different.


A gamecube version of OoT has masterquest already. That's not really anything new (at least for me)
OnTopic: I'll probably end up getting a 3DS but only because some of the new games look sweet and my old DS is starting to really break down. My right bumper doesn't even work anymore :whimper: