Nintendo 3DS Announced

Nintendo revises its forecasts:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/09/29/nintendo_earnings_slash/

While the company previously expected operating income of 320,000 million yen on 1,400,000 million sales, it now expects 210,000 million yen operating income on 1,100,000 million yen sales.

In a statement today, the company listed four reasons for the cuts:

* The stronger-than-expected yen appreciation
* Current sales performance
* Sales outlook for the holiday season
* Decided release conditions for the Nintendo 3DS




http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/09/30/nintendo_sales_expectations/

Joining its downward sales and earnings revisions from earlier today, Nintendo shared updated hardware sales forecasts for all its systems. Included is a first indication of what Nintendo expects in terms of sales from the 3DS.

For the current fiscal term ending March 31, 2011, Nintendo expects to sell 4 million 3DS system. It anticipates software sales of 15 million for the system.
 
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I really wonder how many units they can/will move at this price point. 299(US) is the same price as the 360/ps3

They will fail* horribly at that price.

*units somewhere in the neighborhood of psp - psp-go ... or roughly a third of DS sales.

I remember the last time a company had dominance in market share ... they priced their following console at roughly double their previous launch (DS launched for $150) and also failed horribly, selling less than a third of their previous effort.


Good luck S... err I mean Nintendo.
 
Um PSP-go is much much worse than that in units. last I saw it was like 1-10th of PSP sales. Even if they priced it at $500 I don't think it'd fail that badly. It's over priced but just like the Wii it probably won't matter during launch.
 
Price high and drop as needed. Pricing too low to begin with is lost money. I'm sure Ninty will sell as many as they need, and adjust price accordingly.

As for the Sony comparison, isn't it kinda daft to compare sales after four years with sales after ten? ;) According to here, PS2 was at about 50 million units by this point. PS3 has sold about 40 million, give or take. Certainly not selling less than a third of their previous effort...

Silly mistake Th... err, I mean anyone could make.
 
Pricing always has two sides, one is demand. Apple often prices high but sells just fine due to demand.

I'm pretty sure it'll be the same with 3DS. I just saw a tweet from DF
Most exciting thing about 3DS for me? A new, stereo 3D, hopefully 60fps, Ridge Racer.
And it just struck me how cool 3DS could be right then, again.

I suspect it becomes the "in" item with massive shortages, jacked up ebay prices, and all that.

That said I'd like to see the 3D effect in person, if it's an underwhelming gimmick than I'll reconsider my opinion. Although arguably that didn't hurt Wii sales :p
 
IT wont cost more than $250 when we get it here in the USA . Nintendo is going to use the massive ds market in japan to make a killing and bring down the price of the console. This plus a new 3d pokemon (or 3d mode for black and white pokemon) will most likely sell all they can make in Japan
 
If it's going to sell regardless of the price, then why lower it for the US? They already lose money on the exchange rate selling here, if anything it should go for more. That wouldn't be the first time for that either as the PSP launched for $185 in Japan and $250 here in the states.

Nintendo certainly isn't afraid to go for the big bucks.
 
If it's going to sell regardless of the price, then why lower it for the US? They already lose money on the exchange rate selling here, if anything it should go for more. That wouldn't be the first time for that either as the PSP launched for $185 in Japan and $250 here in the states.

Nintendo certainly isn't afraid to go for the big bucks.

I don't think it will sell that well here without great software , The DS had an awfully slow start herei n the states esp compared to the psp , it took some big games to get the sales up.
 
As for the Sony comparison, isn't it kinda daft to compare sales after four years with sales after ten? ;) According to here, PS2 was at about 50 million units by this point. PS3 has sold about 40 million, give or take.

You looked one year too early. The sales for PS2 were 71.3 million units at the end of march 2004, which included 3 years + 4 months of sales outside of Japan and exactly four years from Japan.

PS3 has little under 40 million now with 3 years + 10 months from Japan and NA and 3 years + 6months from Europe.
 
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http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/10/01/3ds_firmware_updates/

During a Q&A session at the briefing, an attendee asked if Nintendo would be implementing anti-piracy measures via the internet. Replied Iwata, "As part of the functionality of SpotPass, we're looking into having automatic system updates via the internet."

...

While the question had been just about piracy, Iwata added that this system wouldn't just for preventing piracy. Nintendo is hoping to also get new functionality onto 3DS systems.

Past firmware update methods have required that the player manually initiate the update. In Nintendo's experience, said Iwata, players did not do this very much.

3DS will also have a system in place for updating the firmware through package software itself. Said Iwata, "We believed this to be doable because the usable ROM size for the 3DS would become much larger."
 
If it's going to sell regardless of the price, then why lower it for the US? They already lose money on the exchange rate selling here, if anything it should go for more. That wouldn't be the first time for that either as the PSP launched for $185 in Japan and $250 here in the states.

Nintendo certainly isn't afraid to go for the big bucks.

No entertainment device sells totally regardless of price, there's always a limit and 25000 Yen in Japan is quite different to $300 in the US despite them currently matching each other in exchange rates. Wii was released for 25000 Yen, as was GC and N64 AFAIR, its an affordable price their, to my knowledge Nintendo have never released a system for $300 in the US.
 
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However, the dollar has devalued compared to the yen, so that same pricepoint is worth less than it was. Coupled with inflation, $250 isn't the same as it used to be. You can't expect a company to stick at the same pricepoint forever in the face of changing currency values. That's not to say they won't launch at $250 in the US, but it's wrong to take historical precedent as absolute proof they will. Nintendo have just slashed profit forecasts. Releasing their latest hardware for less than they can charge for it isn't going to help their profit situation much.
 
IMO Nintendo will know that despite currency changes there's a certain mind set when it comes to console and especially handheld systems, $300 will be seen as too high by many. I mean its not as if people's ideas of the money they have in their hand changes as it devalues against foreign currencies.
 
That's true, but sooner or later you have to push people's mindsets to change to accept the fact that money devalues and prices have to go up. The latest devaluing of the pound saw various imports have a price hike to offset the lower revenue per unit. I imagine the US is just lucky in being such a large, contigent market that the ease with which you can reach so many people means it's still worthwhile to give them a bit of leeway.
 
IMO Nintendo will know that despite currency changes there's a certain mind set when it comes to console and especially handheld systems, $300 will be seen as too high by many. I mean its not as if people's ideas of the money they have in their hand changes as it devalues against foreign currencies.

But why is $300 considered affordable in Japan but too high in the US? This smacks of IMO a parochial attitude where its ok if the other guy gets raped and pillaged but they wouldn't dare do that to us because, you know, we're special.

As to historical precedence, Nintendo has never released a 25000 Yen handheld either yet they're about to do just that.
 
Price high and drop as needed. Pricing too low to begin with is lost money. I'm sure Ninty will sell as many as they need, and adjust price accordingly.
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That seems to be the strategy. There's already enough momentum and game support behind the platform that they should have very little issue shifting the first ~5 million @ $250 in the US. They're biggest problem during the launch period will be in maintaining supply, not driving demand. Once they've soaked up all that demand and have worked through the initial supply issues they can simply drop to $200 and not notice any real adverse effects. Early adopters are the most loyal customers and expect to get screwed over to some degree, that the system is available for $50 less some 6-18 months after launch isn't going to affect them one bit.

Having the Wii supply constrained for the first 18 momnths of its life did nobody any favours.


I don't think it will sell that well here without great software .

It already has the most impressive pre launch lineup of software support of just about any console in history, with the possible exception of the PS2. Having compelling software isn't going to be an issue. Just look at the support Capcom have thrown at the thing! Its already beginning to look like the primary platform of development for most major Japanese studios like Capcom and Square Enix from here on out and its still nearly half a year away from launch.
 
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But why is $300 considered affordable in Japan but too high in the US?
Regional economies, plain and simple. It only seems unfair when you take a global view of economy, but economies aren't uniformly. In reality, what £1 buys me, the equivalent money in another country can buy a lot more, while in some countries a lot less. If you measure the cost of a console in loaves of bread, say, in a country where bread is 10 hundredths of a local dollar/pound, that's 3000 loaves for the 300 dollar/pound console. Another country with a loaf costing 100 hundredths, the console costs 300 loaves. In the first country its cost is 10x more than the latter country, in relative terms to the currencies local buying power. You get regional pricing even within a country, petrol prices being an excellent example in the UK.

Reality is most people buying a console or handheld have no idea what the price is other countries, and only buy based on their perceived value according to the buying power of their currency. Whether a handheld cost the equivalent via exchange of $50 or $500 in Japan is immaterial. If $300 would buy a whole lot of other stuff, then $300 for just one console may seem expensive. Whereas $300 gets you a night out or a week's groceries, $300 will seem dirt cheap for a console.
 
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