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3DS

Nintendo 3DS Price Reduction a Success in North America

by Pedro Hernandez - September 8, 2011, 5:59 pm EDT
Total comments: 9 Source: Press Release

Sales of the 3DS rose greatly after price reduction.

Sales of the 3DS rose 260 percent after its price reduction in August, Nintendo announced today.

The 3DS, which saw a $80 price reduction in August, sold 185,000 units after the price drop, according to data provided by the NPD. The 3DS monthly total was 245,000. The system now retails at $169.99, having originally debuted at the $249.99 early in the year. 

In response to lower than expected sales, Nintendo reduced the price in order to make the system more appealing beyond its technical capabilities.

In other Nintendo news, the Wii sold 190,000 units and the DS 165,000 in the month of August, and the majority of the best selling titles for the month belonged on Nintendo platforms.

Nintendo 3DS Sales Up 260 Percent Following Price Reduction

Nintendo sold more than 235,000 Nintendo 3DS™ portable entertainment systems in the United States in August, and the system finished as the No. 2 best-selling dedicated game system for the month, according to the NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States. About 185,000 units were sold following a price reduction on Aug. 12, an increase of more than 260 percent during the comparable 19-day time period in July.

“Consumers are responding very positively to the new suggested retail price of $169.99 for the Nintendo 3DS,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “With Star Fox 64 3D and the new Flame Red color launching tomorrow, and Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 arriving later this year, Nintendo 3DS will offer consumers cutting-edge entertainment and tremendous value this holiday season.”

Other Nintendo milestones reached in August include:
- Nintendo sold more than 590,000 total hardware units in August, including more than 190,000 Wii™ systems and more than 165,000 units of the Nintendo DS™ family.

- For the third month in a row, the majority of the best-selling software SKUs play on Nintendo platforms. August featured five of the top 10 and 15 of the top 20.

- So far in 2011, more than 50 million units of software have been sold for Nintendo platforms.

- In total, 540 million units of software have been sold for the Wii system and Nintendo DS family of systems combined.

For more information about Nintendo, visit http://www.nintendo.com.

Talkback

AVSeptember 08, 2011

That's without any significant lineup too. Christmas sales will be a-ok


I might have to buy my girlfriends red 3DS sooner rather than later......

YmeegodSeptember 08, 2011

Nintendo's always been about the holidays sales.  You might want to wait to see if Mario/either Kart or platform will be bundled. 

Jet PilotSeptember 08, 2011

Remember what Iwata said about the PS3 price drop:

"Sales that result from a price drop have no longevity."

I believe the 3DS will be a long-term success as long as Nintendo doesn't go and piss off all of their cutomers by releasing a 3DS redesign next year that obsoletes the current model.  However it's going to take more than one month of good sales brought on by a price drop to fix the 3DS' problems.

leahsdadSeptember 08, 2011

Quote:

I believe the 3DS will be a long-term success as long as Nintendo doesn't go and piss off all of their cutomers by releasing a 3DS redesign next year that obsoletes the current model. 

You know, there's a thread in the forums right now concerning speculation of what the next redesign can bring, but my question is slightly off that topic:

Is there anything that Nintendo can improve on with the next redesign that would make the current model obsolete?

I think not.  Would double the battery life do it?  Probably not.

BranDonk KongSeptember 08, 2011

So if they sold 190,000 Wiis and 165,000 DS systems in August, out of a total of 590,000 hardware sales...does that mean they sold 235,000 GameCubes last month? 235,000 Virtual Boys? 235,000 N64s?

TJ SpykeSeptember 09, 2011

NeoGAF says the 3DS sold 235K in August, not the 185K in the original post.

Mop it upSeptember 09, 2011

I believe this puts the 3DS over the one million mark in the US, which is certainly a good thing. Hopefully, this momentum will continue until the holiday lineup is released, which is when I expect the 3DS to really pick up. If they can sell another million units then, the 3DS should be fine.

Chozo GhostSeptember 09, 2011

One good thing about the poor early adoption rate is that since so few people bought the 3DS at $250 that means there aren't that many people to get pissed off over it, and of course thankfully there was also the ambassador program too which hopefully defused much of the outrage.

GoldenPhoenixSeptember 10, 2011

I can just imagine what the sales would be with unique must have games for the system, and not two remakes of N64 games. My guess is that 3DS will have have a decent sized install base by the time PS Vita rolls around since we will finally have games that aren't ports or remakes that people want.

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