Nintendo Drops Prices of DSi and DSi XL

Now for $20 less.

Nintendo has already dropped the price of the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL, here and in Japan. Now, they have done the same in North America. Effective after September 12, the DSi will cost $149.99 and the DSi XL $169.99; that’s $20 less than the systems’ previous prices of $169.99 and $189.99, respectively. The DS Lite, however, will remain at its current price of $129.99 for the time being. A comment from Cammie Dunaway explains the reason for this unexpected much-anticipated price drop:

“We know shoppers want to get the maximum value out of every dollar they spend. Our new Nintendo DSi prices make it easier than ever for consumers to access the tremendous variety of games, applications and social tools on the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL systems.”

All valid reasons for slashing the price, of course, but more than likely, the true reason for the price drop was to clear out some breathing room on the upper end of the price scale in preparation for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS.  Therefore, we can expect the 3DS to cost significantly more than the new price of the DSi XL. Nintendo has previously stated that they intend to take home a large profit on every 3DS system sold, and considering the novelty of the parallax barrier technology it uses, this could add up to a hefty price in the end. Our previous estimate of $199.99 may, in fact, turn out to be a little on the low side. Other sites have suggested that to make their profit, Nintendo may need to ratchet the price up beyond $200.

At first, you may think that this is an odd decision; that Nintendo may be killing off potential sales by asking as much or more for their next-gen portable than they do for their home console, but there’s another side to this argument. For now, at least, the 3DS will be one of, if not the only electronic device to offer glassesless 3D visuals, putting Nintendo in the desirable position of having monopolised the market. Even if they cannot maintain this position for long, Nintendo will use their monopoly while they can; for a time, consumers will have no choice but 3DS if they want to experience the cutting-edge technology, in turn allowing Nintendo to charge high prices for it while maintaining a wide profit margin.

When other companies begin to release their glasses-free 3D devices (and they inevitably will), Nintendo will have lots of room to drop the RRP of the 3DS before they begin taking losses on sales. In fact, as time goes on and the 3DS’s tech becomes cheaper, Nintendo will probably continue to gradually lower the handheld’s price, giving consumers the illusion that they are “being nice” and choosing to make less money to get the system to more people. By this time, the customers who are ready to get it at any cost (I would count myself among them) will already own it, and the market will be ripe for the more casual users who aren’t willing to pay as much. In fact, Nintendo will be making the same amount of money from sales as from the earlier, higher-priced ones. It is a clever strategy indeed, and I hope all this money flowing into the company will support the development costs of high-quality 3DS games.

You can track all Nintendo 3DS pricing information as it comes in on our dedicated Nintendo 3DS Price page.