Thursday, July 28, 2011

3DS: Baboom

From Joystiq:
Nintendo has just announced that the price on the 3DS will drop to $169.99 stateside on August 12. That's down from $250 currently...

And boom goes the dynamite. A price drop of 32% only a few months after the system launched?

I give credit to Nintendo for being aggressive. Clearly, the 3DS, in spite of its technical brilliance, just wasn't resonating with consumers. This is a big, big move in terms of pricing, and it's clearly a warning shot across the bow of the PS Vita.

I'm guessing the Vita will be launching in the U.S. in November--certainly, before Black Friday--so this gives Nintendo over 3 months to capture a much larger share of the market before the Vita arrives. The Vita is a technical beast, and even though I'm a big fan of the 3D tech in the 3DS, it wasn't going to compare well to a Vita selling at the same price.

Now, though, the pricing difference is substantial enough to make it interesting.

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