$249 3DS Is ‘A Bargain’

Tuffcub 44 Comments

The dust has settled from yesterday’s barrage of Nintendo 3DS news and some of our readers were rather vocal about the price, suggesting it was a teensy bit expensive. Those pesky analysts have had a look at the pricing and also agree it is wrong. They think the Nintendo 3DS is too cheap.

“I thought the price point would be higher… but $249 is pretty good.” said M2 Research’s Billy Pidgeon. “To me, what remains to be seen is software pricing. So far, it’s a little higher in Japan and they haven’t mentioned what they’ll be here.”

Mystic Meg Michael Pachter has suggested Nintendo will miss out on some easy money by pricing the 3DS at $249.

“I’m impressed that they had the confidence to charge $249; I think that they’re going to regret it. It’s going to sell out and they’re leaving money on the table. I’m impressed that they’re this consumer friendly – that really matters. So it’s not shareholder friendly, but consumers are going to love the $249 price point. If you explain the feature set to most consumers, they would say $300 or more. So $249 is a bargain.”

Not everyone is impressed with Nintendo’s ‘bargain’ pricing; Werner Nemetz , QA Tester for Activision has said:

With that price point, region lock and 40 bucks for a handheld game this will get a no thank you on launch. Not willing in any kind of way to pay for a handheld game almost as much as for a console game. 3D is nice and all, but for me personally the hardware is not upgraded enough compared to the DS to warrant this price.

Let us know if you would pay $300 for a 3DS in the comments section.

Source: IndustryGamers / GamesIndustry.Biz

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44 Comments

  1. I wouldn’t be happy paying $249 for one, let alone $300. I don’t know where this ‘selling out’ mentality is coming from, the majority of the opinions I have seen have been that of ‘I think I’ll wait for a bit.’ Mr Pidgeon certainly doesn’t seem to be living in the post-economic crisis world the rest of us are. New career time I think.

    • Yeah I’m not sure what sort of world he lives in to think charging £40 for cartridge games, which is tech from the last century, is a good idea. Especially when most of it will be shovelware like ‘ dr kawashima 3d brain training 3d in 3d!’. I’m also not convinced about the glass-less 3d. Reports suggest if u move the console even a tiny bit whilst playing the 3d effect doesn’t work, and that it has given quite a few people headaches. It is also reported that the 3d is not consistent across all games and that 2-d is the preferred option for most of the supposed ‘3d’ games.

      • That’s exactly what I was thinking, normally I don’t trust sites like engadget but my eyes are dodgy at the best of times and I don’t want to be spending £250 on basically a headache machine only to trade it in a week later at half the price in preparation for the PSP2. I think i’ll wait till the 2nd generation of SKUs before purchasing.

      • Very true. I’m also holding off in the hope that the PSP2 may adopt some 3D properly seeing as Sony is the main champion of 3d tech and nearly all of their products include it now ( Bravis, handycams, ps3s). But i guess we’ll have to wait and see. I’m definitley not buying a 3ds though an i’m slightly concerned about the headaches issue, considering 95% of it’s audience is young children.

  2. I wouldn’t pay £250 nevermind £300. I was looking at maybe purchasing one at launch but not at the prices set by retailers. Maybe in 6-12 months time I will delve

  3. Surely it will be very difficult for them to distance themselves from the price of the Wii and the DSi XL? While I understand it’s a large evolutionary step, people will surely consider which Nintendo has the most bang for its buck when they’re all laid out together in a shop?

  4. Feck off… its a good price I could afford it

    • oh well that’s the defining factor then I suppose! It far too expensive for a handheld. For the price of it you could get a PS3, a 360 or 2 Wii’s.

      • Yes but if the quality of games and OS is great then its worth £219.99… I know you could buy a home console near the price of a Wii and 360 but no buying another would be pointless in my opinion.

    • You kiss your mother with that mouth? :-)

      • Actually feck is not swearing. People think it’s a funny pronunciation of the other F word but it’s not. It’s a much less offensive word, common in Ireland (hence the use in Father Ted).

      • Yes, irish… I blame the recent watching of Father Ted I don’t know how but I just believe that’s funny… than the needless F word..

      • I know it’s not as harsh a word. I was having fun! *packs case of comedy and goes elsewhere* :-p

      • I would kiss his mother with my mouth.

      • I wouldn’t call the F word needless. Without it Bunimomike would be out of a job. :P

  5. There’s a psychological barrier with prices of certain (mass appeal) consumer items and I think the 3DS is above it right now. However, Nintendo won’t have any trouble shifting millions of them. I’m just curious to see if it compares favourably with the previous outings (ie. DS, DSi, etc).

    • I disagree, I think that barrier is stil in place. For the same price as the 3DS you could get a PS3 or 360. People aren’t going to want to pay the same amount of money for a handheld that they will for a home console as they will always be seen as inferior versions of their big brother and should be priced as such. No matter how much impressive tech Nintendo or Sony an shove in there, I think people will always feel this way.

      • Ah, I think we’ve dissected the hell out of this on the other thread. People wanting a mobile console won’t be comparing this with a PS3. When it comes down to it, my iPhone 4 is around £550 as a handset (eg. ignore the contract) but it’s about what I want my mobile phone to do. Comparing that with a PS3 would be redundant. However, I think I was a bit confusing previously. I think the barrier is very much apparent with the 3DS, fella. Totally agree. It’s a pricey bit of kit (ignoring any comparison with any other device). I reckon it’ll put quite a few off until they see a tangible drop in price.

      • I think they will be comparing it.

      • I didn’t see the other thread so that’s why I posted this. Personally I’m not sure what I believe the market will be with this. I know people are comparing the PSP2 and 3DS to the I-Touch but personally I think they are two different markets. I hate gaming on my i-touch and keep my PSP for that. The i-touch as i see it is more for the casual gamer whereas the PSP(2)/(3)DS is more for the hardcore market, people who will still sink £30 into a game regardless of what platform it is for, and these people will no doubt make comparisons between the prices of handhelds and home consoles.

      • but TSAS are doing comparisons.

  6. Lets face it, they’re competing with the iPod Touch. The entry level Touch is $230. $250 is just barely alright when that’s what you’re competing with.

    As with the Wii, Nintendo are banking on their major titles to get ‘hardcore’ purchasers to buy off the bat, and that’s a big reason why they’re resurrecting LoZ:OoT again. They know it will shift hardware, and they don’t have to make a whole new title. That can come later.

    I also get the feeling that Nintendo have been building up to this price point. Look at the NDS launch all those years ago. It was £100, or $150. The DS Lite came out for fewer dollars, but the same pounds, but since then they’ve actually been charging /more/ each time for every revision. From the DS Lite to DSi, it jumped £50 for crying out loud!!

    That’s just cuckoo land in my books recession or not. Hardware and successive revisions are meant to get cheaper as time goes by. The profit margins on the DSi and DSi XL would have been absolutely monstrous, but at least it’s got people into the mindset to accept a much higher, and far more premium product.

    Anyway, back on topic. The only reason why the price is as restrained as it is is because of the iPod Touch. This would have sold out at launch at a higher price, but only because of Zelda and other key titles in Nintendo’s catalogue, and then in a year or two’s time, it’ll hopefully go mainstream as the DS did.

  7. I’m ok with $250.00, already pre-ordered. And anyone who thinks that it won’t sell like crazy, is well…crazy. Every Nintendo console (except the virtual boy) to date has been hard to keep on shelves at launch, and this will be no different. No matter what the price, there will be a group of people who thinks it’s too high or simply can’t afford it. Similarly, no matter what the price there will be a huge following that just has to have the new hotnezz.

  8. No chance would I pay as much for a handheld as I would for a console. I know its like comparing apples and bricks but the $250 is still $250. Way too expensive. However, the rubes will still eat it up, as they do with everything Nintendo throws at them.

  9. Are nintendo mad!? £250 for a portable console. You can get an Xbox for that price and if you look hard enough a ps3. i thought it was sony who were bad at pricing. who wants to pay £250 for a portable console with a small battery life. So far i’m not impressed with the 3ds. it’s a good thin Nintendo have a good lauch lineup for it or this may fail before it’s even had a chance.

  10. Me + €250 3ds = no go.

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