**UPDATE**
Further to today’s announcement that Nintendo’s Japanese gamers will be getting a massive 40% price drop on the Nintendo 3DS portable games console, news is coming in from Ninty that U.S. 3DS consoles are also set to get a price crash too!
Nintendo’s US offices have confirmed that they will be dropping the price of the 3DS in America from $249.99 to $169.99 (a huge $80 drop) and have also confirmed that the UK model will get a price slash “by a third”.
All this will take place in 2 weeks time starting from August the 12th, but if you are one of the unlucky/slightly annoyed early adopters who took the 3DS plunge early, then Nintendo is keen to keep you sweet.
As well as the price cut, Nintendo says that anyone who bought a 3DS before the 11th of August will be able to download 20 free games via the online Nintendo eShop in a set of 2 batches – as long as you have registered your device online before the 12th of Aug.
From September 1st Nintendo will release the first batch of free games which will be a bundle of NES games including Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr, Balloon Flight, Ice Climber and The Legend Of Zelda. Then later on in the year Nintendo will release ten free Game Boy Advance titles which will be kept solely for the early adopting public as a thankyou. Those titles will include Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion and Mario vs Donkey Kong.
The prices for the UK are set to be confirmed, but we should be looking at a 3DS-only package coming in at the £140 mark.
Nintendo Slashes 3DS prices by 40%
Nintendo seem to be having a hard time getting their latest 3DS Console to stick and sell as after an initial launch rush sales and demand for the console have slowed quite considerably – surprising for a company whose last console sold over 86 million worldwide.
But it would seem that Nintendo are panicking slightly over the relatively new consoles sales figures, as in its homeland of Japan the 3DS is just about to receive a mammoth price drop of over 40% with the rest of the world looking likely to follow.
Nintendo has announced that it will be dropping the price of the 3D handheld gaming machine by a huge 10,000 Yen, taking its original price (25000) down to a paltry 15,000 Yen. In the UK by direct conversion this works out as price drop of £79 from the original price of £196 which takes the console down to the sub-£120 mark!
This is a huge price drop as the console was only released in Japan in February and normally Nintendo themselves hold the prices of their consoles for some time until sales really begin to slow.
Many people consider the slow sales of the 3DS to be due to the availability of classic and well know games, with Nintendo still only having a small 3DS games line-up which features very few big hitters.
However, with the soon to be released Super Mario 3D Land coming in November and Mario Kart 7, Star Fox and Kid Icarus to follow for Christmas time, the sales of the console may jump considerably especially with the price drop.
The Japanese price drop will be coming into effect as of the 11th of August and Nintendo has stated that other regions will see a price cut sometime between “July and September”, but that “the ranges and the timings of the markdown will be different from that of Japan”.
We can all hope that Nintendo cut the price of the 3DS in Europe as much as 40% but realistically we would expect a price around the £150 mark.
Would a price dropped 3DS make you but the 3d Console? Let us know you thoughts in the Comments below or on our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter.