With losses piling up this gaming company is pulling drastic measures to woo new customers.
Nintendo has experienced incredible sales the past few years, riding on the success of the Wii and DS/DSi consoles, though financial reports in the last quarter (PDF) highlight a sheer drop in sales post-Christmas; with hardware sales bringing less than half the revenue compared to a year earlier.
Though there is little Nintendo can do to combat the ailing performance of the Wii and DS consoles, the 3DS is perfectly positioned for some attention – a press release emailed this morning highlights a substantial price drop to the tune of $100, bringing the 3DS console down to a wallet-friendly $250 effective from August 12 2011.
For those early adopters who have purchased the system recently and may feel put off by this uncharacteristically early pricing change, Nintendo are offering a 3DS 'Ambassador Program' to those who use their 3DS console to login to the Nintendo eShop before the price drops on August 12.
The Ambassador Program gives access to "10 NES™ games and 10 Game Boy™ and Game Boy Advance™ games for free from the Nintendo eShop." Australia is not alone in the 3DS price change, with all other regions experiencing a similar fall – one could purchase a 3DS from America post-August 12 for US$170 (though it is region-locked).
Among the mentioned NES games are Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda, which will be available for purchase to those not in the Ambassador Program.
Game Boy Advance games will be exclusive to those in the Ambassador Program, offering games such as Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare Inc: Minigame Mania, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
However tempting the new pricing for the console, we predict it will have limited impact on sales until further titles are released on the platform – a prediction echoed by the financial report's Consolidated Operating Results:
"During the three months ended June 2011, for the "Nintendo 3DS", "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D" was launched and favourably received, but "Nintendo 3DS" had few other hit titles. As a result, the worldwide sales of "Nintendo 3DS" hardware and "Nintendo 3DS" software were 0.71 million units and 4.53 million units respectively."
Come this Christmas more games for the console should be on store shelves, such as Star Fox 64 3D, and sales of the 3DS console should improve – though will face the yet-to-be-specified launch of the Sony PlayStation Vita.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012