Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Following the reveal of some very bad sales numbers, Nintendo has announced a major price cut for the 3DS. During April to June, the handheld system only sold about 710,000 units worldwide. In response, Nintendo has announced a huge price cut slated for August 12. They're taking $80-$100 off the cost. In the US, it's going from $250 to $170. Australia gets a cut from $350 to $250. The Europe numbers aren't announced yet, but that's reportedly going to be around a third off, too.

To improve relations with early buyers, Nintendo plans to offer 20 free download games - from the Game Boy and NES libraries - to those people.

It seems Nintendo is really worried about these sales, doesn't it? I can't recall any system that had such a large slashing so early after release. Does this make the 3DS more attractive to any of you?

Even though alot of people say the 3D aspects of the system are something they want, alot of them also just don't want to buy a new system so its only natural sales would be down and this price cut would happen. I think I'll just wait about a year and half before I think about getting a 3DS, maybe it'll be down to 99$ by then

Well, I've played the 3DS for ten minutes and it was enough for me to know that I don't want it even for free (unless bundled with a lot of free games, I would reconsider and play it all 2D), but I think the price cut was something needed. Although the 3D images are pretty interesting, the console doesn't offer much more beyond that. I still think Nintendo has do come up with something that really makes its console stand out. Probably they realized that they will be no match for PS Vita if they try to compete directly against it, so they are lowering the prices before Sony launches its new portable.

Of course the price cuts doesn't apply to Brazil, but it is really difficult to sell it costing more than PS3 or a XBox 360 + Kinect (at least here, it costs more than both).

Curiously PSP started dominating the Japanese market recently, after struggling in their first years. It means that 3DS is not lost yet, despite the frustrating start.

A cut in price does sound attractive, but still not enough to get me to buy this new system at this time. Boy, it sounds like Nintendo is really hurting though.

And, to add to that feeling, I read something about one of the CEO's of Nintendo taking a major cut in salary or something to that effect. It makes you wonder.

Yeah, apparently the president of Nintendo of Japan cut his salary by 50% and the salary of other executives by 30% or 20%. I'm sure it will come back up if Nintendo can turn these losses around, but this is certainly an unusual move. I can't recall the last time I heard of an American executive reducing his salary by that much when his company was in trouble.

Of course the price cuts doesn't apply to Brazil, but it is really difficult to sell it costing more than PS3 or a XBox 360 + Kinect (at least here, it costs more than both).

I'm a bit surprised the price cut isn't apply to Brazil, now that you mention it. It's supposedly a worldwide initiative according to one of the Europe executives. Maybe they'll announce a cut there soon too.

Well, when they announced the PSP price cuts everywhere, its price here not only didn't lower, but also raised for some time, before returning to the same old price.

A 3DS costs BRL 1200 (~US$800), but still it is selling for those who are willing to buy (mind that PS3 had a recent price cut from BRL2000 to BRL1600 here), so I don't think they are that interested in cutting the prices right now.