Oh yeah, everybody's favorite ...... analyst give his 2 cents about 3DS pricing, software, etc.

He predicts that the 25,000 yen ($299) price point for the Japanese launch of the handheld will depreciate somewhat as it travels to Western markets, arriving in the U.S. for $250, Europe for €250 and the U.K. for £200. And although Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime stated the 3DS would "launch in all of our major markets by March 31, 2011," Pachter foresees an even later arrival in the West.

"Looking at how Nintendo does things," Pachter said, "if you're launching February 26 in Japan, and their earnings reports say before the end of the fiscal year in U.S. and Europe -- is there any prayer, even a 1 percent chance that they'll launch a week later in the U.S., March 5? No freaking way. It's not even remotely possible they're launching first half of March. I'm betting it gets delayed until April in Europe and U.S.."

Some analysts have balked at the fairly high Japanese launch price of the 3DS. Though Pachter admits the launch price is "higher than what's customary" for the handheld market, he said the market will bear the toll -- a lesson hard learned by Nintendo when it launched its latest home console.

"They screwed up on the Wii. It was sold out for two full years! You just couldn't get one," Pachter said. "What was the point? They should have sold it for $300 at launch, and made another $50 for every Wii sold during that period. It sold so competitively in the first few weeks that it was going for $1,000 on eBay -- and they absolutely don't want to see the 3DS on eBay."

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/30/pachter-3ds-will-cost-250-in-the-u-s-likely-wont-come-state/

Make sense ... at least u got ONE right mr.Patcher and i will give u the credits for this one.

it'll probably make its March target; the DS released in the US in late November and was out in Japan a little over a week later. Worst case scenario is that a delay DOES happen but it'll matter little anyway

He's right this time. The 3DS's pricepoint will avoid shortages and will make the DSi sellout even more.

He's actually pretty spot-on, given that there's a good chance that Nintendo will want 3DS on the Fiscal 2011-12 books in NA and EU, though given the strength of the Yen, Nintendo might want to try and get as much of that weak-currency revenue as they can as soon as they can to float their numbers

He's also right that Nintendo's probably trying to balance with demand. Though i can't imagine the outrage that would've come about back in 06 if it were found out that Nintendo was trying to sell the Wii for as much as a baseline 360 right out of the gate.

"They screwed up on the Wii. It was sold out for two full years! You just couldn't get one," Pachter said. "What was the point? They should have sold it for $300 at launch, and made another $50 for every Wii sold during that period. It sold so competitively in the first few weeks that it was going for $1,000 on eBay -- and they absolutely don't want to see the 3DS on eBay."

He's actually claiming demand that high is a bad thing.

Wellcome to the bizarro world.

And before you bring up his logic, recall that Nintendo had no no way of knowing it would be a hit. But he's also blaming Nintendo for making the system affordable.

Yes, I agree that somehow his arguments sound rather... bizarre.

We can all forgive Nintendo for not realizing how big of a success Wii would be, but it is true that because of the demand, the price was clearly too low to work properly in the market. Hence ebay.

Yeah I remember it was hell trying to find a Wii. Once I decided to get one, I had visited 7 or so different stores in a span of about 3 weeks and I finally found one.

I think he's right on about the price. However Nintendo exec's have promised 3DS by the end of March since they announced it at E3. I can't see Nintendo breaking that promise. Plus their goal of selling 4-million units in the 2011 fiscal year means they are bound to launching within that fiscal year.