Mark your calendars for September 29th. That’s the day that Nintendo (according to the quote Bloomberg‘s Japanese office received from company spokesperson Yasuhiro Minigawa) will reveal both the price and Japanese release date of the hotly anticipated 3DS. Prices are expected between the $150 and $250 range, with higher software prices also expected on average. No word on whether a Western release will be included in the announcement, but expect any announced price to carry across the shore.
$150 really? That price is too low since a DSi costs $180, so a price or over $200 isn’t that bad, but more than that is getting close to absurd.
I hate the idea of a release date for the release date… its worse than a countdown for a teaser.
As for the price, I expect if to be $300. The 3DS will have 3 screens producing almost PSP levels of graphic fidelity, not to mention a lot of other features that will be in it that haven’t been announced yet.
Remember though that a major reason Nintendo has continued to dominate the handheld market has been children. Many parents aren’t going to spend $300 for a handheld device. I’d hope for a $199 price tag.
The majority of DS players are 30 or older.
I am not so sure about that one. I think it is more like the 18-30 crowd. There are kids with them, but I mostly see college age people with them.
From GameInformer, the average age of handheld video game players is 37 years old (42 for women, 35 for men), and the system in which most adults play is the Gameboy DS.
Now, the article was published before the Iphone started ramping up their games.