Topic: Europe: 3DS at March 25th, no price tag yet. Reactions!

Agreement. I think i might wait until there are some bundles with games or something...looks like it only comes with the AR cards.

The way I see it, there's no fixed price, right? Mr. Shibata said during the event that NOE was going to let retailers set their own prices.

In other words, they were going to start a price war.

Seriously, it's started already. Most places say £229, a couple swoop in with £219. It's just gonna keep going down from there. I doubt it'll ever reach £179 across the majority of retailers, but seriously, it won't be £229 for very long at all.

Ooooh, I get to pay 2499 NOK for it. Sweet!
_{That's roughly 420 USD if you were wondering, btw.}

In an economic climate like the EU that actually may be very clever. The price of the 3DS could whittle down enough that retailers won't be making too large a profit out of it and customers get a better deal as a result. Sure the price won't drop to US levels, but it's a better move than setting a concrete price which will be endlessly disputed across borders.

Although if the retailers are smart enough to band together and insist on a certain price then it won't make a difference.

Where did you find that price? o.O Most places seem to be aiming for something between 2200 and 2500. I think I'll wait a couple of weeks after launch to get the best deal. If CDON keeps its 2199 price, though, I might go for it soon; it's just so tempting!

yikes, isn't that illegal over in Europe? because price-fixing like that is definitely illegal here in the US...

I have no clue actually. It should be illegal, knowing the strict business laws there. Let me look it up.

EDIT: Actually that was a dumb comment. Of course they have anti-profiteering laws lol. Wikipedia says UK laws prohibit price fixing (as expected), so it should be the same across countries which are part of the European Union. However that doesn't affect non-EU countries - such as a number of eastern European and post-Soviet states - so if you live in a one of those then it really depends what your country's government and economy is like. Don't think many NL members come from those countries.

I looked up the price on Game's website, 'cuz I was planning on buying 3DS from the local Game anyway.
Might not now though, if they keep that price.

What exactly does that mean?

Basically prices should always be competitive to benefit the customers and maintain a free market. Usually retailers will try to lower prices so more people will buy from them, right? We always go for the lowest price available to us. But business owners could secretly (or not secretly) agree with one another to mark up or standardise prices everywhere to inflate their profits. That's illegal in developed countries like the US and the UK. In undeveloped or developing countries without strict business ethics laws this can happen though and it doesn't help the consumers and the economy overall.

Nintendo only has suggested retail prices. Nintendo has their own, lower wholesale prices. Ultimately, it's up to the retail chains to set the actual price point.
For instance, if the executives at Wal-Mart chose to sell the 3DS for $50, the could! They'd be dumb, deaf, and blind for selling at a loss, but it'd be their own rotten luck! Nintendo wouldn't care (they'd probably even like it (more games to sell)) they wouldn't be taking the blow, Wal-Mart would!

I reckon stores will keep trying to undercut each other... I can see prices dropping to less than £200 before launch!
By the way: £217.85 on Zavvi, with a free case!

So the 3DS is 250 $ in USA?
Converting this to European €, 250 Dollars are 185 Euros.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Amount=250&From=USD&...

For 185 € is a good price, I would get a 3DS.

No way I pay more than 200 € for it. Forget it!!

I'm going to wait till it hits £199 before I buy and by then it should have a good libary of games to choose from.
ASDA are already selling it for £217 with Monkey Ball so it won't take long I reckon.I was expecting £250 TBH so I'm quite happy. Can't wait to see what games are developed 2 years from now.The possibilites seem endless with this machine.Its got everything

It does seem that European markets are more likely to price drop hardware. In the US, pretty much everywhere always sells hardware at the MSRP. You might be able to save $5 or so here and there at online only retailers or the occasional black friday sales, but other than that...unless the console's a huge failure the price doesn't budge until Nintendo/Sony/M$oft lower the MSRP. Do the UK/EU countries usually have an equivalent to MSRP or is it usually just a free for all?

The UK has an RRP scheme (recommended retail price), but as with North America, retailers don't have to stick to it if they don't want to. In this case, it sounds like 3DS has a wholesale price from Nintendo to retailer, but no RRP. Hence the oncoming price war (probably).

We have RRP. If anything, retailers tend to go slightly above it than below it, because they can. I saw DKCR and Sonic Colours selling at £43 in Gamestation earlier this month (RRP £39.99). Ouch.

£219.99? Definitely going for that, the leftover £10 could do me good.

http://www.game.es/ficha/ficha.aspx?SKU=073098

250€ in a market where all the prices are exactly the same.

Importing from USA whn appears on Play-Asia.

It's illegal, sure. But that doesn't stop em doing it and getting away with it.