Nintendo Says, 'Sorry for the Early Price Drop on the 3DS' - The UpStream

Nintendo Says, 'Sorry for the Early Price Drop on the 3DS'

posted Saturday Aug 13, 2011 by Nicholas DiMeo

Nintendo Says, 'Sorry for the Early Price Drop on the 3DS'

As you should know by now, this week marked the week that Nintendo cut the price on their 3DS by $80. You probably also know that Nintendo's corporate president Satoru Iwata announced that many of the company's execs would be taking pay cuts because of the accountability in Nintendo. What you probably may not know, but could have guessed, is that a lot of people, despite Nintendo's brass admitting their faults and taking responsibility, are not too happy about the price cut coming less than six months after release. Those people are the early adopters who bought the 3DS at launch.

In a letter written by Iwata himself, he explains the price cut and tries to ease the tension of those early shoppers. We have the letter and more after the break.

In the past, there have been price drops for video game systems some time after their release in order to broaden the user base further. However, never before has Nintendo chosen to issue such a dramatic price drop less than 6 months after a system release.

We are all too keenly aware that those of you who supported us by purchasing the 3DS in the beginning may feel betrayed and criticize this decision.

Those customers who purchased the 3DS at the very beginning are extremely important to us. We know that there is nothing we can do to completely make up for the feeling that you are being punished for buying the system early.

Nintendo is going to try and fix this though, with free and exclusive games for those who bought a 3DS early in what they are calling the "Ambassador Program." The company has announced that titles like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Wario will be available to download.

Let's just hope these drastic measures work. Sharp, sudden price cuts have worked in the past for other companies, like Apple and their first generation of their iPhone, and we would hope to see a successful rebound from a company that is near and dear to our hearts.

However, with sales being dull, and only 110,000 units being sold in the US during Nintendo's Q1, things don't look too bright. At this point, we can only wish for the best and get those Virtual Console games for our 3DS.

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