Nintendo is clearly feeling the heat; the price of a 3DS has been slashed

Out of the blue Nintendo, Nintendo has announced a dramatic price cut, along with a bunch of free (and semi-exclusive) games for their early adopters. What’s the deal here? Actually, it’s fairly easy to guess.

It was recently revealed to their investors that Nintendo is not doing all that well. So much so that they’ve cut projected profits for the year by a staggering 82%. Why? Because the thing that was supposed to print them money has… and that’s their new system, the 3DS.

The reasons why it’s so sluggish is perhaps obvious: the lack of good games being at the top of the list. It’s been months now, and one can still count the number of good games (and this included the ones everyone is waiting for at the end of this year) on just one hand. Not good.

Oh, and a little thing called iOS seems to be getting everyone’s attention on subway rides around here, which is purely anecdotal, but still hard to ignore. Though it most certainly is not the only reason as some Apple zombies would like you to believe (mostly blogs who are eager to spin anything into pro Apple rhetoric).

Anyway, Nintendo has just announced that on August 12, the price of the system will go from $249.99 to $169.00. A $80 price drop in less than 6 months? Yikes.

Now, what if you’re one of the folks that already got the system? You must be fuming, right? Well, Nintendo thought of that and is launching the “The ambassador program”, which will offer all early adopters 20 free games. That’s right, 20 free games. Granted, they’re all old NES and GBA games (which is the first time Game Boy Advance support has officially been mentioned). But still! The list includes…

On the NES side:

- Super Mario Bros.
- The Legend of Zelda
- Donkey Kong Jr.
- Balloon Fight
- Ice Climbers
- and five unannounced games

On the GBA side:

Game Boy Advance (10 titles total)

- Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3
- Mario Kart: Super Circuit
- Metroid Fusion
- WarioWare Inc.
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong
- and five unannounced games

… Oh, and those Game Boy Advance games will NOT be available outside of this program. Which basically means, if you want to replay WarioWare (or any of the other four known titles, which are all pretty damn good), you’ll have to get the system now at the higher price. Oh Nintendo, why can’t you make things easy, ever?

Thankfully I have all those titles, and am still waiting for the inevitable redesign/better battery life. Or will there be one? Generally speaking, Nintendo hardware revamps are supposed to entice people to buy an extra one of whatever, and if they can’t even sell the original, well…

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