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Thursday, July 28, 2011

News Filter: 3DS Price Drop Announced One Month After I Finally Buy One

  • Not that I'm bitter.

  • The news coming from Patrick Klepek over at Giant Bomb is that Nintendo will reduce the price of the 3DS to $169.99 beginning August 12. I, of course, used my stack of birthday gift cards to buy one for $250 in June.

  • Again, not that I'm bitter.

  • The 3DS has not hit the stratosphere like its predecessor did. And with the Playstation Vita on the way, Nintendo had to do something to better differentiate themselves from Sony's offering.

  • Not all is doom and gloom, though. Those of us who purchased the handheld at the higher price will receive ten NES and ten GBA games through the Virtual Console free of charge. They revealed five games of each so far. The NES are Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda and the GBA games are Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Not a shabby lineup if you intend to use the system for a retro gaming, something that I am likely to do. I'm not sure that it makes up for the price differential, but it's not awful.

  • Really, I'm not bitter. I'm hoping that if I say it enough, I'll start to believe it.

© 2011 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
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4 comments:

  1. Strawfellow7/28/2011 3:25 PM

    No bitterness here. Nope. Move along.

    As for the 3DS, well, I still have my DS lite. It plays GBA games, and it's not like the physical games are terribly expensive anymore. And it works just fine for me. I think Nintendo was just too quick to jump on the latest 3D fad. Them, and Sony for making those 3D televisions. It may last due to steady marketing, but it'll always just occupy a niche market.

    Sony's got a chance here to pull ahead in the handheld market, and given the amount of things the PSP could do, it may be the next hit.

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  2. Marty Runyon7/28/2011 4:06 PM

    @ Straw Fellow - I'll probably have my DS Lite until it dies. It has so many great games on it. Unfortunately the 3DS has yet to prove itself. I read somewhere, and I agree, that we are likely looking at the last generation of handheld consoles.

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  3. Strawfellow7/28/2011 4:11 PM

    "that we are likely looking at the last generation of handheld consoles."

    I agree and I don't agree.

    I agree in the way that we are looking at the last generation of handheld consoles that are specifically meant for gaming.

    I don't agree, because the market for games on the iTouch and iPad is ridiculously huge, and though I have no figures to back this up, I believe it does rival and even may overtake Sony and Nintendo's efforts. Handheld has never been for dedicated, long term gaming, and the iTouch embraced that. Combined with that app store which can be compared in some ways to Steam, you got a winning formula.

    Future handheld gaming devices are going to be multifunctional, and most definitely not called gaming devices to the general public. Yet, we have Order and Chaos on the iPad. I'm very interested to see the future of this genre.

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  4. Marty Runyon7/29/2011 4:42 PM

    @ Straw Fellow - That is certainly what I was alluding to. I hear people all the time who love gaming on their iPhone/iPad.

    Funny thing, though, is that I can't stand it. DS games are much more my speed for what I want out of a handheld.

    Of course, I don't try to play games in 5 minute increments whenever I have down time.

    ReplyDelete