Yeah I'd imagine that a lot of the mass market is confused and thinks the 3DS is basically a 3D version of the DS and not an entirely brand new generation. A cut to $200 would certainly help I think. Certainly better than $250. That's not quite mass market pricing for a dedicated gaming handheld though. The DS launched at $150 in 2004 (equivalent to $171.66 in 2010 dollars). There isn't much inflation going on these days. This isn't like the 70s recession where you had insane unemployment coupled with insane inflation (stagflation). Inflation is only like 2.1% or something like that. And the DS didn't really take off in the west until the $130 DS Lite came out (crazy that the Lite is still at the same price point now). Affordability has always been a key factor to Nintendo's successes. Thing is that 3DS tech is very expensive. A $180 launch would have been ideal for Nintendo. But not feasible with the hardware.
As for stereoscopic 3D, I don't think it's wise to have your system's philosophy revolve around 3D. 3D should have been just a new feature (like Street Pass). Not something you base your entire system around (naming it 3DS). Because then everything on the hardware has to be stereoscopic 3D. Including 2D retro games. And that is going to cost a lot of money. If you are a retro 2D game developer, why would you put it on the 3DS when you can put it on the DS, PSP, NGP or iOS/Android in 2D at a fraction of the development cost? Software sales for DS and PSP software is still strong and I'd imagine NGP would be pretty popular in Japan given the PSP momentum there. With the 3DS it's going to be like the N64 where everything had to be 3D (stereoscopic 3D this time). The whole point of putting something on the 3DS is to play around with the stereoscopic 3D technology no? If you aren't going to use the stereoscopic 3D tech, you might as well put it on the DS, PSP, NGP or iOS/Android.
