From $249 to $169 - Massive 3DS price drop coming August 12.

Wow. This comes as a shocker to me. I was never in a rush to pick up a 3DS (My DSiXL still has plenty of potential), but heck with a price drop this early on I may have to pick one up....or maybe not.

I disagree. I think both the 3DS and the PSP's biggest competitors are smartphones and tablets. Smartphones/tablets are powerful systems (which like PCs, improve every few months) which boast strong support from an incredible number of indies (its also worth nothing that my brother recently showed me his new smartphone, which has a 3D screen which looked much higher rez than that of the 3DS).

The fact parents can buy games for their kids for less than the price of a cup of coffee is hugely attractive for parents, especially non-gamers who aren't trying to mold their kids into core gamers.

Last but not least, 3DS does have that 'blinds small children' thing going on... :P

CarnageHeart

What makes you think parents will buy each of their kids a $100-$200 smartphone that comes with a mendatory 2 year $30 data plan? That alone comes out to be $720. Add the price of the phone and it's almost $900 for a smartphone for two years VS $170 Nintendo handheld. PS Vita is a different story, and yes I agree Vita's direct competition is smartphones and tablets because Vita's target audience is teenagers and young adults who can afford a smartphone on their own. Nintendo is going after the kids market and they will win everytime.

I mean you are a parent. Are going to get your kids a smartphone which allows them to browse the internet freely with no restrictions? Would you be okay with adding two $30 data plans to your existing phone bill? Hell, if i were to get a data plan, i would get one for myself and $30 a month is just a bit too expensive considering im already paying fifty bucks a month for home internet. Maybe you are trying to mold your daughters into core gamers, so you are probably not the best person to ask :P but i just dont see many parents buy each of their kids smartphones with mendatory data plans.

You've got to be kidding me! I think this means I have to buy one now :evil:

[QUOTE="CarnageHeart"]

I disagree. I think both the 3DS and the PSP's biggest competitors are smartphones and tablets. Smartphones/tablets are powerful systems (which like PCs, improve every few months) which boast strong support from an incredible number of indies (its also worth nothing that my brother recently showed me his new smartphone, which has a 3D screen which looked much higher rez than that of the 3DS).

The fact parents can buy games for their kids for less than the price of a cup of coffee is hugely attractive for parents, especially non-gamers who aren't trying to mold their kids into core gamers.

Last but not least, 3DS does have that 'blinds small children' thing going on... :P

S0lidSnake

What makes you think parents will buy each of their kids a $100-$200 smartphone that comes with a mendatory 2 year $30 data plan? That alone comes out to be $720. Add the price of the phone and it's almost $900 for a smartphone for two years VS $170 Nintendo handheld. PS Vita is a different story, and yes I agree Vita's direct competition is smartphones and tablets because Vita's target audience is teenagers and young adults who can afford a smartphone on their own. Nintendo is going after the kids market and they will win everytime.

I mean you are a parent. Are going to get your kids a smartphone which allows them to browse the internet freely with no restrictions? Would you be okay with adding two $30 data plans to your existing phone bill? Hell, if i were to get a data plan, i would get one for myself and $30 a month is just a bit too expensive considering im already paying fifty bucks a month for home internet. Maybe you are trying to mold your daughters into core gamers, so you are probably not the best person to ask :P but i just dont see many parents buy each of their kids smartphones with mendatory data plans.

To hear my ten year old tell it, half her friends have cell phones :P. As for the age group which ipads appeal to, I refer you to a November 2010 Nielsen study.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/the-ipad-tops-childrens-tech-wish-list/

Ipads (and smartphones) cost a good chunk of change, but kind of like a computer, a non-gaming parent can tell themselves the device is going to have more than one use. Its an old game that I played when I was a kid 'Mom, dad if we get that new computer, I will not only be able to play games on it, but also do my homework!'.

On a related note, I don't have a real tablet (yet), by my $250 Nook color (which I recently got for my kids, since my Kindle is fine for my needs) does a passable imitation of one, and my daughters not only read books and magazines on it, but also play games.

As for kids going online and finding stuff they shouldn't have, I would be very surprised if smartphones and ipad don't allow parents to limit web access in the same way computers do (BTW: the 3DS has a web browser).

I think it's possible Nintendo has played the gimmick card just a bit too often, and since all the signs were there that 3D is not the big deal the electronics industry was expecting it to be, Nintendo was unwise to make their newest gimmick rely on it. Not to mention -- $250 is too much for a handheld, as is $40 software, especially in a world market still reeling from a recession. I believe the Vita is going to suffer similarly low adoption rates in the beginning and will be a gigantic money loser for the company for the first few years. Looking back, the GBA SP launched at $99 and the DS launched at $149. I don't care what anyone says, that extra hundred dollars is going to have a huge impact in sales.

Nintendo seems to think now that each product they put out has to has some kind of gimmick attached to it, and I don't believe that to be the case. Innovating isn't innovating when it's done solely to innovate. Nintendo hit a few out of the park with the Wii and DS, but it's beginning to feel like they are hellbent on imposing a stereotype on themselves that they have to do that every time, which is laughable. The most successful systems of all time have all been conventional.

Further, the market is simply much more competitive now with phones and tablets stampeding in on previously competition-free markets. I believe things are going to remain ugly for the 3DS, and will be just as ugly for the Vita, especially when the libraries of both machines (at least what has been released and shown thus far) look to be mini-me versions of likely superior console versions and fifteen-year old retreads.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/the-ipad-tops-childrens-tech-wish-list/

Ipads (and smartphones) cost a good chunk of change, but kind of like a computer, a non-gaming parent can tell themselves the device is going to have more than one use. Its an old game that I played when I was a kid 'Mom, dad if we get that new computer, I will not only be able to play games on it, but also do my homework!'.

On a related note, I don't have a real tablet (yet), by my $250 Nook color (which I recently got for my kids, since my Kindle is fine for my needs) does a passable imitation of one, and my daughters not only read books and magazines on it, but also play games.

As for kids going online and finding stuff they shouldn't have, I would be very surprised if smartphones and ipad don't allow parents to limit web access in the same way computers do (BTW: the 3DS has a web browser).

CarnageHeart

Im not sure how seriously i could take that chart because it says PS3 and Move were a lot more desirable than the 360 and Kinect, and we all know how the complete opposite has played out in the last few months. :P My point is that parents are the ones who buy their 3-12 year olds stuff, and while many are cool and will buy thier kids what they want, most simply would get what they find interesting.... or see advertised. Kinect launched with a $500 million campaign, which im sure affected sales.I still believe the 3DS will come out strong in the holiday season, especially when Nintendo stops pushing the DSi which is still selling well and no doubt taking sales away from the 3DS.

Also, many including Shameus above me will be surprised to find out that PSP shipped 1.8 million units in the last quarter, that's more than the 360(1.7), Wii and the PS3(1.7). The sales can be attributed to the price cut to $129, but it says that the demand is still there. And this is handheld that isnt even that popular with the DS stealing all the limelight in the last six years (at least in the U.S). Imagine how well a 3DS successor would do at a decent pricepoint.

On a completely unreleated note, I am not sure if i would want to buy my kids a tablet over a PC. Now of course I dont have any kids yet, but i would be surprised if computers were replaced by tablets at the workplace in the next 10-20 years. Kids need to learn how to type, and use a PC. iPads just dont provide that. Now Nooks and Kindles are a different story, they are truly revolutionary educational devices that i have no problems with.

Im not sure how seriously i could take that chart because it says PS3 and Move were a lot more desirable than the 360 and Kinect, and we all know how the complete opposite has played out in the last few months. :P My point is that parents are the ones who buy their 3-12 year olds stuff, and while many are cool and will buy thier kids what they want, most simply would get what they find interesting.... or see advertised. Kinect launched with a $500 million campaign, which im sure affected sales.I still believe the 3DS will come out strong in the holiday season, especially when Nintendo stops pushing the DSi which is still selling well and no doubt taking sales away from the 3DS.

Also, many including Shameus above me will be surprised to find out that PSP shipped 1.8 million units in the last quarter, that's more than the 360(1.7), Wii and the PS3(1.7). The sales can be attributed to the price cut to $129, but it says that the demand is still there. And this is handheld that isnt even that popular with the DS stealing all the limelight in the last six years (at least in the U.S). Imagine how well a 3DS successor would do at a decent pricepoint.

On a completely unreleated note, I am not sure if i would want to buy my kids a tablet over a PC. Now of course I dont have any kids yet, but i would be surprised if computers were replaced by tablets at the workplace in the next 10-20 years. Kids need to learn how to type, and use a PC. iPads just dont provide that. Now Nooks and Kindles are a different story, they are truly revolutionary educational devices that i have no problems with.

S0lidSnake

Bear in mind that kids have always been a big chunk of the core gaming market and MS hasn't exactly made targetting kids a priority (releasing a motion control isn't the same thing as targetting kids). Many of the casuals that flooded into the console market this gen are adults who were intimidated by full controllers and uninterested in the concepts that many games tended to be built around. There have been a lot of Wii in nursing homes articles, but nobody would write an article saying 'The Wiimote is so easy to use that for the first time ever, children are gaming in large numbers'. Most Kinect games seem to be exercise games, and aerobics is more of an adult thing than a kid's thing.

I agree with you that the 3DS will do better once it cannibalizes DS sales. Still, I doubt it will be the DS 2. As I've said before, its striking that Nintendo has turned its back on casual gamers. In the year or so before Nintendo essentially killed the Wii last E3, they didn't release any original games (casual sequels to popular games seem to behave the opposite way of popular core games,achieving a fraction of the sales of their predecessors) like WiiFit or WiiSports and the pulse sensing device they once showed vanished without a trace.

Instead they have offered Mario, Kirby and Metroid. WiiMusic is reckoned a disaster, but even its sales ran rings around any Metroid, so I honestly don't understand why Nintendo has suddenly started ignoring the massive market of gamers who they drew into gaming. They continued the ignoring with the 3DS (at E3 all they announced were Mario games, they didn't announce any minigame collections or suchlike the could concievably spur the interest of casuals) and as far as I can tell, there is no end in sight. I question whether they can prosper while continuing to do so (their popularity in the core arena has steadily decreased).

I agree with you kids need to learn to type (we have a desktop computer, but we have a laptop so that one doesn't have to be in the den in order to surf the net or send e-mail).

I think it's possible Nintendo has played the gimmick card just a bit too often, and since all the signs were there that 3D is not the big deal the electronics industry was expecting it to be, Nintendo was unwise to make their newest gimmick rely on it. Not to mention -- $250 is too much for a handheld, as is $40 software, especially in a world market still reeling from a recession. I believe the Vita is going to suffer similarly low adoption rates in the beginning and will be a gigantic money loser for the company for the first few years. Looking back, the GBA SP launched at $99 and the DS launched at $149. I don't care what anyone says, that extra hundred dollars is going to have a huge impact in sales.

Nintendo seems to think now that each product they put out has to has some kind of gimmick attached to it, and I don't believe that to be the case. Innovating isn't innovating when it's done solely to innovate. Nintendo hit a few out of the park with the Wii and DS, but it's beginning to feel like they are hellbent on imposing a stereotype on themselves that they have to do that every time, which is laughable. The most successful systems of all time have all been conventional.

Shame-usBlackley

I think it's partly that consumers expect them to do something big and different now as well. The Wii and DS really set into people's minds that Nintendo is synonmous with innovation. They feel they have to meet those expectations now by delivering something new and different each and every time they make a new console. It sets them apart from their competitors, whom they couldn't compete with way back in the GameCube era. They probably think they would have another GameCube on their hands if they try tackling the traditional console market again. After the dismal performance that had, I can't say I blame them.

This price drop could save the 3DS, however I wouldn't be surprised if the 3DS still flops and it's discontinues on a little over a year.

[QUOTE="Shame-usBlackley"]

I think it's possible Nintendo has played the gimmick card just a bit too often, and since all the signs were there that 3D is not the big deal the electronics industry was expecting it to be, Nintendo was unwise to make their newest gimmick rely on it. Not to mention -- $250 is too much for a handheld, as is $40 software, especially in a world market still reeling from a recession. I believe the Vita is going to suffer similarly low adoption rates in the beginning and will be a gigantic money loser for the company for the first few years. Looking back, the GBA SP launched at $99 and the DS launched at $149. I don't care what anyone says, that extra hundred dollars is going to have a huge impact in sales.

Nintendo seems to think now that each product they put out has to has some kind of gimmick attached to it, and I don't believe that to be the case. Innovating isn't innovating when it's done solely to innovate. Nintendo hit a few out of the park with the Wii and DS, but it's beginning to feel like they are hellbent on imposing a stereotype on themselves that they have to do that every time, which is laughable. The most successful systems of all time have all been conventional.

c_rake

I think it's partly that consumers expect them to do something big and different now as well. The Wii and DS really set into people's minds that Nintendo is synonmous with innovation. They feel they have to meet those expectations now by delivering something new and different each and every time they make a new console. It sets them apart from their competitors, whom they couldn't compete with way back in the GameCube era. They probably think they would have another GameCube on their hands if they try tackling the traditional console market again. After the dismal performance that had, I can't say I blame them.

I think Nintendo's problem is they have a different definition of innovation than most core gamers. Nintendo believes that if they release Zelda 64 with a motion controller or in 3D, they have innovated. The Wii's core game sales are identical to those of the Gamecube, which leads me to believe that the Wii sold to the same core gamers who bought the GC for the same reasons (Mario, Metroid and Zelda).

My take is that innovation is a function of game design, not hardware. Most games are similar to many other games not because of the restrictions of the hardware, but the preferences/limitations of the creators (and their perception of the desires of the audience). PC hosts a lot of innovative indie games despite the fact that the method of control hasn't changed in decades. I'm playing through the very innovative Catherine using the same controller which Madden and CoD use.

It will be interesting tosee if a new controller and HD get people that weren't interested in Mario, Zelda and Metroid interested in those games.

yeah, pretty much expected, especially since a ton of people already have some sort of DS so to go pay that much for a new one would turn many away from it. Though, it would be nice to see one of the other DSs to go down in price since I only want it for maybe a handful of games, oh well.