Nintendo plans to ring in the New Year with a manufacturing price drop to make handheld cartridges cheaper for publishers, and ultimately, consumers.
Although GBA games are selling rather well, many standard games are not selling as swiftly as expected, especially at the $40 price. Fortunately, it seems that third-party GBA games will start becoming a lot more affordable with the dawn of the New Year. IGNPocket has run a report citing numerous development and publisher sources, stating Nintendo intends to drop the average price of a Game Boy Advance cartridge to closer to Game Boy Color cart range, with prices mainly around (but rarely exceeding) $29.99. To accomplish this goal, Nintendo will drop the price of cartridge manufacturing for game publishers by approximately $2.00 a unit, starting January 1st, 2002. With publishers having to manufacture tens of thousands of units, the price cut will significantly reduce costs, and provide greater incentive for companies to release GBA games at a cheaper price. Cheaper GBA games should be appearing on store shelves early next year! Nintendo has not officially commented on the manufacturing price drop.