Topic: Release and Price

@MysteriousVoice: Yeah, you would know huh?

I did say possibly costing $300. I'm fully aware that there hasn't been an official price announced for NA. If it stays at or under $250 I'm still interested.

Lower it Fifty bucks? Unlikely.
Lower it 20/30 bucks? Probably.

To be honest I'm not a fan of picking up hardware on day one. I should probably wait for the library to grow a bit.

300$ is a bit costly. Im kinda sad this year is 3DS-less. I guess Ill get myself a new iPod Touch this Christmas :/

I'm suprised that it costs more than the Wii did. But thats cool.

Incorrect, it costs just as much as the Wii did at launch (25,000 yen)

Really? I thought the Wii was 250 when It debuted.

I 'm kinda glad and sad that it won't come out this year. I'm glad because a March release date gives me more time to save up money to get it ,but sad because I won't be able to test this baby out early.

I know this thread has been mostly about hardware but Gamespot ( http://www.gamespot.com/news/6280046.html ) posted a story about approximate release dates of 3DS games in Japan. Again, THESE ARE FOR JAPAN!!!! 10 titles have already been announced for coming out at or near launch, along with 2 more scheduled to come in 2011. Everything else has not yet been confirmed:

Spring 2011
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D--Nintendo
Nintendogs + Cats--Nintendo
Pilotwings Resort (working title)--Nintendo
Pro Baseball Spirits--Konami
Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle--Level 5
Ridge Racer 3D--Namco Bandai
Samurai Warriors Chronicle--Tecmo Koei
Steel Diver--Nintendo
Super Monkey Ball (working title)--Sega
Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition--Capcom

Unspecified 2011
Kid Icarus: Uprising--Nintendo
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D - The Naked Sample--Konami

@Otaku
That depends, do you want 100 chocolate bars now, or a 3DS later?

EDIT: I was not implying that you are fat, I was stating what I would probably do with that money.

I don't care if it costs $300, I'm buying it Launch Date anyways.

It was, but the Wii was 25000 yen at launch in Japan (roughly $300). Like I (and others) have said, Nintendo does not directly convert yen to $ to determine the final price

Nintendo expects to sell 4 million 3DS units by the end of their fiscal year, and 15 million 3DS games, so there'll be at least four titles launched within the first month (in Japan). They also halved their earnings projection for the rest of the year because, well, the economy sucks in Japan, too. Also, the 3DS won't launch in time to print all that money they like so much. heh

They must REALLY need the time to get the 3DS up and running. So I guess I can't fault Nintendo for more than showing us a product that was NOWHERE NEAR ready yet. The price is a bit high, but people would pay twice that much, and the first run of gizmos always has a high price. Just ask anyone who bought a Kindle, iPhone, iPad, PS3, well, any technology, really, when it first came out.

It definitely will not cost $300, nor anything close. A direct conversion from ¥25,000 works out at around $300, sure, but that's with a really strong Yen versus the Dollar that's kinda in the gutter atm.

The Wii Launched at 25000 Yen and $250 USD but back when the Wii launched 25000 Yen only got you about $250US (actually ~$215US). Now it gets you more US monies.......... plots how much 25000 Yen would get you over time

does it make sense now? The start of this line is when the Wii launched and that last point is today. The US$ is worth a lot less than it was in 2006 which sucks for international companies trying to sell stuff to US consumers. US consumers don't care how much their money is worth to international companies. They will quite literally sit back and compare the price of the 3DS to the price of the iPhone in their own money.... which is why it probably won't cost $300US

Thanks for the graph skywake (I had wanted to check one but was too lazy).

What's really interesting is that we paid MORE for the Wii then the Japanese did. I don't think they'll be able to get away with a $300 price point, but $250 seems logical, seeing as it's a portable that's a little more advanced than the Wii in a lot of ways (3D, more internal memory, better processor/graphics).

That being said, I think a lot of people will compare it to the iTouch and find it wanting (I've compared the specs numerous times, won't do it again). This would be the first time Nintendo's been a pricy option in portable hardware and a very expensive option in software. Come out with a 3DS Mario and Pokemon game, and it probably won't matter for a lot of folks though.

@Token: We also got Wii Sports bundled with our Wiis. Japan did not

oh man, did anyone see this article?

i totally blame Corbie and his 'incredible, absolutely incredible' five seconds of fame for this D:
_{lol not really, but i thought it was funny :3}

iwata: "We don't believe that the world is in a state where high priced software will sell well, so we don't believe it will be in a price range too far off from current DS software."

granted he's talking about games there, but i think that applies to the system too. $250 is already a big jump up from the rest of the DS series and i doubt they'll go higher than that. it's a part of nintendo's whole philosophy to make their products easy for consumers to buy, and $250 is about the threshold for what's too expensive to buy casually. it's also got to compete with cell phones that are much more technically advanced that retail in the same range. point is that $300 would really be pushing it.