If you wanted to buy a Nintendo 3DS but didn’t have a good enough reason, a price drop might change your mind.
Effective from August 12, the Nintendo 3DS will be available for $249.95 RRP, down one hundred dollars from the original $349.95 RRP.
Current owners of the handheld console can take part in Nintendo’s 3DS “Ambassador Program”, which will give them 20 free games later this year from the Nintendo eShop. The games will be titles from older Nintendo consoles – NES, GameBoy, GameBoy Advance – and include the original Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Metroid Fusion, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
If you were thinking of buying a 3DS now, you’d be crazy not to wait until mid-August given the price drop. But we have to ask, is the slight drop in price really enough?
In America, Nintendo has dropped the price of its glasses-less 3D portable gaming system too, but it will be sitting at $169.95 USD (ex-tax) from August 12, compared to the new Australian price of $249.95. Current parity pricing suggests that we should be getting the console for a little over $150, but we’d even take $180-200 as a price reduction, especially if we’re keeping in line with a high value Australian dollar.
Sadly, you can’t just import a Nintendo 3DS from America and be done with it. With the 3DS, Nintendo engaged in “region locking”, with American consoles only playing games bought from North America. If you throw an Australian title into an American 3DS, it’s unlikely to play.
