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back to article 3DS discount sparks retail price war

The Nintendo 3DS price war kicked off today in anticipation of tomorrow's global trade price reduction, with the handheld now being offered as low as £115. The company has slashed the 3DS price by around a third, after a failure to meet initial sales targets. While the cuts have already come into effect in Japan, the rest of …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    BlurryVision (tm)

    Why would anyone pay £15 more for a 3DS, when it comes with BlurryVision?

    Also as someone at work said "screw that, it doesn't work with R4..."

    The days of Nintendo being able to sell crap hardware with no decent games (outside their own) because they have a cutsey image have long gone. Consumers have woken up that they have been sold and resold the same crap for years, and most of it sits in the cupboard gathering dust...

    0 2
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    yay.....

    at that price i will be banging on the door of tesco in the AM to still not buy one.... but i do need some fresh milk !!

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  3. Alan Bourke

    Remove the region lock and ability to brick it remotely...

    ... and they might get somewhere.

    1 0
  4. M Gale

    Now that's more like it.

    Seems like a worthy successor to the original DS Lite I have here with the dodgy shoulder buttons. Now I just need £100-odd quid to throw away on a toy. Maybe next month!

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  5. Captain Scarlet

    Game stiocking up from Tescos

    Why not, Special Reserve used to do it around christmas when I worked there (Such a long time ago) as it costed more to get consoles, games, dvds from a distributors. When they slapped maximum buys on them though it did make it a bit harder.

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  6. PaulR79
    Flame

    A third?

    Looking at those prices they're dropping more than a third with the Tesco price at half the original cost! £260 for a 3DS at launch from Game because they wouldn't let you pre-order in store without taking one of their 3DS + game(s) packages down to £145 now. I think this is the first time I've seen a price drop in £ that is MORE than the price drop in $. We're seeing almost £100 cheaper whereas it's about $60 in the US.

    I'm more than a little annoyed, I don't care if they felt it necessary. I'm far from happy about their offer of some ancient NES and SNES titles that will cost them very little to push out..

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  7. Paul_Murphy

    Battery life of the 3DS is poor

    I mean really poor - 3 to 5 hours for a handheld? the DS lite is 15 to 19hrs (http://ds.about.com/od/nintendods101/a/nintendo3dsspecs.htm) which to my mind makes it rather pointless unless you have a socket available virtually everywhere you go,

    I would say the DSi nor DSi XL are better machines unless you really need 3D.

    Lots more here: http://uk.gamespot.com/forums/topic/26841039

    ttfn

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  8. Rick Brasche
    FAIL

    still undesirable for one serious issue

    battery life is still craptacular. Until that's addressed, I'll save my interest for the DSXL. Still going strong with the DSLite, and the original DS I gave to a friend still going strong.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Price is key...

    .. for me, and that's why I might go down and buy one tomorrow.

    0 0
  10. Alan Bourke
    Trollface

    Although of course

    as soon as an R4 card for this makes a debut, sales will pick up.

    0 0
  11. Trygve Henriksen

    Battery life sucks, yes...

    Which is why I've ordered this:

    http://www.dealextreme.com/p/2000mah-battery-pack-for-nintendo-3ds-blue-82211

    Maybe those enterprising Chinese could throw together a couple of good games for it, too?

    (The only good game so far is Zelda, and that's a Rehash of a rehash of the original Zelda: Ocarina of time. And yes, I have that for the N64, and the rehashed version... )

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  12. Rob Beard
    Thumb Up

    Tempting

    I'm tempted, but I have a DS Lite and I don't play on that much now (I used to use it quite a alot when I was commuting on the bus, but not so much now as I drive to work and don't really have much time to sit and play with it).

    However if the upcoming Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright game is released on the 3DS over here then yes, I will buy one, but probably around Christmas time (actually I might buy one for the wife and borrow it).

    Rob

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  13. Nya
    FAIL

    Costly failure

    Sadly it's dead. It doesn't work with it primary market the kids as they have a restriction on the under 7's due to the 3D. 3D itself is just a fad anyhow, so it wasn't a great idea for them to push that way. And all it's good for is Nintendo's own games. While ok for the kiddy market which it doesn't work with, the games are not appealing to the mass market.

    Even my niece recently got a cheap £90 Android phone recently (didn't think it was a good idea to be honest giving a 10 year old a smartphone but hey ho, the whine factor for you!) and that has now totally replaced her old DS. Namely as the games are free to a couple of quid, against the DS which costs more for the device, costs hugely more for the games, and you have to go to a shop for the game as opposed to click, buy, play. A phone also holds a choice of games as opposed to needing a pocket full of cartridges. And it does browsing and other applications far better than Nintendo have managed.

    Frankly, the hand help console market business model has shifted and Nintendo haven't adjusted to it as yet.

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