EDIT**
You no doubt already know, but the 3DS is $249 in America, and £199 in Europe. Reasonable? I think so!
As part of my ongoing quest to please Beuli2, I am going to be doing a regular series of threads called "against the grain", bringing up news stories which are either overlooked or too big to miss...
However, I have received many messages from users who have commented on how much they enjoy this series. If I can just do that with this writing, then that's important to me. One day, I am to become a writer for this site, or another. Well, actually, I say this, but I'd prefer to be a moderator (so, Machina, if you're reading this!). I didn't really enjoy it beforehand, but I've been getting quite into it now!
Let me just start off by saying that I want a 3DS. I really, really do. And I'm sure that you're also interested in the 3DS. However, I'm willing to bet that there's one thing holding you back from plunging straight into buying one, or pre-ordering one, and that's the price.
Yes, that's right, with a RUMOURED (and I say rumoured very loosely) price tag of $300 or upwards for you Americans, or £250 for us Brits, add the RUMOURED 3-4 hour battery, and the RUMOUR of The Last Story not coming to the west, and you suddenly can see the Nintendo hate train piling up in the distance...
But is this a "new" thing? I'm fairly certain other releases or add-ons have been perfectly successful with a higher price tag (You know, Ipad, Iphone, Kinect, Xbox Live, PS3, HDTV, Modern Warfare 2, etc.), al of which have a price tag at least 3.5X the cost required to actually make them (Except for PS3, but that's an all-new thread entirely 
)
However, have you noticed something just a little bit strange about that list? Have you noticed that, actually, they all do something "new"? The Ipad, which has an RRP here of £450, still managed to sell over 5 million in its first month. Is this because of it being a "bargain"? No, they al did something new, and innovative. Same for HDTV, which, when it was first released, cpst nearly £1,000 to actually BUY a TV. Did people buy them because it was a "bargain"? No, they bought them because of the quality which was involved, but, no doubt so they could show their friends and say "look at me, I've got a HDTV!", and gloat on...
Rambling again, dammit (you can tell it's been a while since I've done one of these!).
What actually makes the 3DS so expensive then? In case you didn't know, it's the tech:
"The lenticules direct the pixels' light in different directions, so each eye sees only every alternate column of pixels.
"The graphics chip renders two images, one for the left eye and one for the right. These two images are displayed on the two sets of alternating columns of pixels."
Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/nintendo-s-new-3ds-technology-explained-679151#ixzz1B6tHmEqI
So, surely this explains the rumoured price?
Me, I'l personally buy one if it's around £20, no more. But the quality of games on offer for it (Layton, Ocarina of time, Paper Mario, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid...) will justify the high price tag for many gamers, as it did with the PSP and PS3. We'll have to see...
Do you agree? As usual, post your response below!
If you'd like to read more of my series, then look no further! Links are below;
1. http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=120673&page=1 (statistical anomolies with Wii games)
2. http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=120880&page=1&str=175262275# (What Nintendo SHOULD have done with the Wii)
