Warning – Nintendo Cuts 3DS Price and Compensates “Ambassadors”

Early adopters shouldn’t be so surprised by a price drop on new gear after it has been out for a while but the Nintendo 3DS will have it’s price cut by just under 30% after a mere four months after its release in Australia (a saving of $100 for new buyers). It’s not the first time Nintendo has cut the price of a console as I remember when the Nintendo 64 had a price cut six months after its release and Nintendo offered a free game to existing owners to make up for the price drop.

Competition in the handheld and casual gaming arena has heated up quite a bit these days with Sony releasing the PSP Vita soon and various smartphone platforms spruiking all sorts of games like Angry Birds for around a few dollars a pop (more or less). So maybe we can’t blame Nintendo for trying to strike before any more competition enters the market.

Anyway, if you are yet to buy a Nintendo 3DS your decision may be influenced by what Nintendo has to offer as compensation this time around.

In a nutshell, existing owners (or “ambassadors” as Nintendo calls them) will be able to download 10 NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) Virtual Console games prior to their official release in the Nintendo eShop, including:

  • Balloon Fight,
  • Donkey Kong Jnr,
  • Ice Climber,
  • Super Mario Bros,
  • The Legend of Zelda,

… and 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games for free in the Nintendo eShop (with no plans for a public release outside of 3DS ambassadors), including:

  • Mario Kart: Super Circuit,
  • Mario vs Donkey Kong.
  • Mega Microgame$.
  • Metroid Fusion,
  • Super Mario Advance 3,
  • Warioware Inc,
  • Yoshi’s Island.

So what’s the catch? If you have a 3DS then you need to have connected to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11th August, 2011 @ 2359 hours (that’s 11:59PM) Eastern Time in the USA. Initially, the NES games will be rolled out from 1st September, 2011 whilst everyone else will have to wait until later in the year for these games. Later on in 2011 the GBA games will be released.

As for how this stacks up from a numbers perspective you might need to decide for yourself but with some popular titles in there it might not be a bad deal at all. You’ve got about two weeks to consider what to do so don’t leave it too late!

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