Nintendo to Drop 3DS Price. Outlines Plan For Early Adopters

In a move that is as worrying as it is surprising, Nintendo has announced a 32% price drop on the Nintendo 3DS starting August 12th.

Also in the recent price drop announcement, Nintendo has outlined plans to thank it's early adopters and entice consumers to possibly purchase one before the price drop.

All the details after the jump.



Five months after release, Nintendo will drop the 3DS down to $169.99 from $249.99, the same price as it's older, larger brother the DSi XL.

For those of you that already have a 3DS or are willing to purchase one before the August 12th price drop, you will get not one but twenty free games through then Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program as compensation from Nintendo.

These games are downloadable NES and Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games which Ambassadors will be able to download for free later this year.

Some of these games include Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda for the NES classics. On the Game Boy Advance front you have Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion (one of my favorite GBA games), WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

One of my favorite GBA games of all time.

The Ambassadors will get the NES classics early starting September 1st and once the updated versions hit the eShop later in the year they will be able to upgrade to those for free. The updated versions include simultaneous multiplayer but are not in 3D.

Finally, multiplayer Balloon Fight on the go!

The Game Boy Advance classics will be available by the end of 2011 but Nintendo has no plans to make them available to the general public as of yet.


Nintendo plans to release all the details of which free games the Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will receive and how exactly to redeem them at a later time. For now you 3DS owners, all you have to do is connect your 3DS to the Nintendo eShop before the August 12th price drop to be automatically rolled into the program.


Now the question is whether to jump in now and get twenty free games, or wait till the price drop and save some cash for some full retail releases. Well played Nintendo, well played. 


Source: Nintendo.com