Going Down (3DS Price Cut).
Yeah I wrote this a month ago. Sorry, work Gamescom got in the way (check Playdevil for my coverage), I’ll try and be better about organising my life in the future… try.
It was recently announced last week that the Nintendo 3DS was to undergo a sizable price cut (and indeed has since I wrote this originally). Here in the UK the reduction equates to nearly eighty pounds , with prices plummeting from £220 to £140 RRP.
Prices are down everywhere, even the homeland.
It is neither an unprecedented move, nor one that should be particularly surprising with sales of the handheld dramatically failing to reach the heights Nintendo had projected. Many systems have undergone similar rapid unpredicted price cuts (if not as fast); it just seems like a particularly telling indicator of Nintendo’s mood towards the 3DS.
It begs the question of just what the company hoped for the 3D system with such high sales projections. Was the hope that Nintendogs and Cats could replicate the original’s past glories, could Nintendo really have been basing their financial forecasts on a fickle casual consumer? Or did they simply feel that the DS brand name would drive sales for the considerably more expensive system, as consumers continued down the upgrade path established by the ‘DS Lite’, ‘DSi’ and ‘DSiXL’ models?
It is almost charming to consider that this giant of gaming could be so totally blind to markets outside of the bubble they have been enjoying to see how things have changed. I myself have often thought Nintendo were out of touch with gaming trends outside of their homeland. Yet as I look at it now it would be naïve to believe that they felt themselves so untouchable that they based the entire business model for 3DS on this premise.
Poor guy, I am sure he will survive.
I suspect Nintendo were happy to experiment with price at a time no new competition loomed. 3DS is not a cheap piece of kit, or at least it wasn’t before it went in to mass production. While the markets have their separations, utility devices such as smart phones’ slow advance into the game market could not have been overlooked (despite Iwata’s recent protestations that these markets do not overlap, an insistence made more for investors than for gamers). With this and the threat of the Playstation Vita around the corner, I suspect Nintendo wanted to test the water. They could see the flow of the tide and wanted to investigate just how secure their position was.
This recent price cut indicates that maybe their worst fears were realised and ‘operation grab what you can’ has been abandoned. With the huge reduction of 3DS price even prompting Iwata to write a sincere letter of apology to loyal fans and take a 50% pay cut (don’t feel bad I am sure he has enough to survive), it does look like a desperate move by Nintendo. But maybe it was a cut that was always on the cards, just one that had to be made faster and deeper than had been hoped.
One game certain to be good, more 3DS sales mean more chance of games from developers other than Nintendo.
Personally I do not mind the cut. I picked up the 3DS at launch for just £190, and these deals (and better) persisted up until the official cut. Even if I were upset about the price drop the ‘Nintendo Ambassador’ program is more than enough compensation. After all those early adopters of the system inevitably like Nintendo, and while the games being offered on the program are no doubt familiar to fans, they are among the best titles the company has created.
Maybe it is my skewed view of the value of old Nintendo titles coming from Japan where such titles still retain their value. Perhaps I am simply and unwitting fan willing to forgive Nintendo anything. But it all comes down to a one simple fact, Nintendo are a business trying to make profit by growing their install base. The way they are going about is not a disservice to fans, nor unfair business. The tech in the 3DS may not be the most advanced, but the companies desire to make a profit on every unit makes absolute sense. If this cut means that they will lose money on each unit, then my only hope is that the gamble pays off and sales pick up, because that will be the only way to ensure the system gets the third party software support I was banking on when I bought it.
Tags: 3DS, Ambassador Program, DS, Nintendo, Price cut
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What have you been playing, news and features make up the show this week. Though the last few weeks have been uneventful in terms of new releases we keep playing games and stuff is still happening in the industry.
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