Not happening Reggie and Iwata have both said countless times that Nintendo never ever sells hardware at a loss. Even with the GameCube Nintendo never sold the hardware at a loss. When Nintendo had to make a price cut they cut features from the GameCube making it cheaper to manufacture.

Nintendo will definatly not be taking a loss on any hardware sold in the US. If they were taking a loss it would be way cheaper Nintendo would probubly have priced it around 150-200USD. But fact is Nintendo does not want to loose any money.

My guess is when Nintendo revealed the Japanese price at 300USD european retailers set their prices accordingly making them slightly higher as often Europe does have slightly higher prices. Actually up untill today EBGames here in Canada was selling the 3DS at 300CDN.

My bet is now that Nintendo has set the American price at 250USD and the Japanese price at 300USD that European retailers will probubly lower their prices a bit. Do I think many European stores will lower the prices as low as 250USD? Doubtful but maybe 275-310USD is more likely.

Nintendo allowing retailers to set the price will probubly encourage retailers to sell the unit. I mean if you could price it at a nice profit for yourself your going to carry the product. But at the same time retailers will have to lower their costs to compete with each other. Also if the retailer isn't selling many units at 310USD they may lower the price to a more reasonable one to shift units.

Also keep in mind localization. It probubly costs Nintendo different amounts of money to import the console into different countries. Different retailers and different markets mean different prices. As I said earlier it would be hard to give a single price I think it is more likely that Nintendo is charging retailers different prices based on their costs then those retailers inturn set their own prices.

Remember competition leads to lower prices. I doubt everyone in Europe will have to pay such outrageous prices. Then again parts of Europe have traditionally high costs.

£220-£230. Ridiculous, as for the EU and the UK with different taxes and currency values why haven't they just said to retailers 'Flog it at the same price as the Wii'..? That's what they've done in the States and Japan. £180 sounds a great deal better than £230. And no pack-in game either, I was expecting a Wii Sports equivalent but demonstrating the 3D goodness instead of motion controls. £270-odd quid for a portable console and just 1 game is way over the top.

I was going to get one on Day One but I'll wait for one of (or maybe even both of) two things 1) For the price to come down and/or 2) Someone to hack the crap out of it.

I was quite prepared to pay around £200 if it had a pack-in game but there's no chance of me getting one now. Ridiculous.

You may be waiting a few years. The 3DS will sell millions of units regardless of price look at the PSP it launched at 300CDN at launch and guess what it sold millions of units. I don't know what the PSP launch price was in Japan but 300CDN is steaper then the 3DS's Canadian price (249.99CDN).

Now I'm sure 3DS might not sell as well as DS did in the long run if they maintain this price. But I suspect it will be around 2 years before a remodel. Until the remodel I don't see the price dropping at all. Look at the third party support the console is going to shift millions of units. Nintendo will not be in a position to cut price for at least a year or two.

About hacking, Nintendo knows they lost millions on DS and Wii due to piracy. Nintendo is not stupid they will have added a ton of security to this thing. Not to mention they will probubly have firmware updates constantly like PSP and PS3 and 360 do. I bet they will brick consoles in a heart beat to prevent piracy. Which means that hacking will likely be patched constantly.

I think if your looking for a cheaper handheld that is hackable your not going to buy a PSP2 or 3DS as both consoles carry and will carry high price tags and be very hard to hack. Your better off sticking with your DS. Maybe 3-years down the road the 3DS will reach 175-200USD in Europe and you'll buy it but until then your screwed.

Your gonna be waiting a long time, in the meantime I'll be enjoying my 3DS. P.S as I said earier I doubt the retail price listed today in Europe will be the final retail price. You can relax a bit nothing is final till March 25th!

Yes, UK pricing is really high, but for the Euro pricing and 1 USD = 1EUR price, people forget that the US price is WITHOUT taxe as the euro price INCLUDE tax. As VAT is arround 20% for a 250 USD it means add 50 USD so 300 USD with taxe.

Actually euro price are not too far from the US price (some retailer in France preorder it at 250 EUR in their website).

It's a law thing...

For examble denmark where i am from, it's iligal, for a company, to set the price.

That's becourse in denmark  and many other contrys in europe (if no all..?) we wont have big companys earning big money becourse of there discount, and the small has to still hold the high price..  

And that goes for all, producs... not just electronic..

So thats why.. It would had been against the law.. pretty simple...:)

And as some other said.. there are more players than nintendo europa... And different economis.. like usa / japan..

 I'm sure I read on here the Gamecube was sold at a loss for a bit - but maybe the poster was wrong or something. Still, if they can get away with selling it for $250 in the USA, then they're just overpiricing it here. If they can sell it at that price, then fair enough, but I really can't see UK sales going all that well. It's just so rediculously high, everyone I've spoken to had their jaws drop lol.

 UK stores have set their pre-order prices and they're all batting around £219 without a game, so really £250 with a game. You won't see the hardware any cheaper here until a price cut, except maybe if the supermarkets get on the launch day offers (Like they do with FIFA / Call of Duty), but in reality we're looking at £250 for at least a year.

 Giving the retailers free reigns over the price isn't a new strategy - Sony did the same with the PS3 - it's just a common thing here in Europe I believe. It's never lead to better value or a cheaper console, as they're already selling the thing at pretty much breakeven anyway. 

 Maybe the cost of gaming is going up and this is just the first of many ridiculous price schemes, but while most of us were expecting a price rise (Somewhere in line with £180 like the Wii was) this just seems extortion. For less than £250 I can buy any other console on the market with at least 2 new games. I don't want to comment on Euro / American pricing as I can't really grasp how much $250 or euros is, but the UK pricing is mental.

 We'll see how the UK reacts from March I guess, while I'm sure there are enough Nintendo fans out there to buy this thing in the first few weeks, I'm really doubting we'll see sustained sales for the device in the UK. Mind you, I think it took the DS a good year to really gain major traction over the PSP, and it's not exactly losing sales to any competition either.

Japanese 3DS retail price - 25 000 yen

Estimated Retail Prices for 3DS

Euro, Pound and Dollar to Yen (20/01/2011)

• 230 British pounds = 30,250 Japanese yen

• 250 Euros = 27,736 Japanese yen

• 250 U.S. dollars = 20 588 Japanese yen

What can we learn from this?

1. The 3DS is most expensive in the UK
2. The 3DS is pretty expensive in the EU
3. The 3DS is pretty cheap in the US compared to the rest
4. The 3DS is significantly cheaper in the US than in Japan!

Euro, Pound and Yen to Dollar

• 230 British pounds = 367 U.S. dollars

• 250 Euros = 337 U.S. dollars

• 25 000 Japanese yen = 304 U.S. dollars

What can we learn from this?

1. The Brittish pay $ 117 dollars more than Americans
2. The most of Europe pays $ 87 euros more than Americans
3. The Japanese pay 55 euro more than Americans
4. For 3DS USA is  by far the best place to live in!

Let's not deceive ourselves: we perfectly know that at least for the first years Nintendo could price it 300€, region lock it at county level and pack it with diseased dog turds and early adopters would buy it and make it sell out anyway.

you should be used of the pricing by now considering video games and consoles has been priced like this since the beginning..

video games are priced from $20 - $120  in Australia (depends on the quality) and consoles from $99 - $700 (depends on the systems Age) and i dont see the problem...

Apparently the 3DS is priced 249,99€ , which would be the continuation of 1€=1$ policy that all manufacturers are doing.

But why NIntendo did not announce it? Since it was what most expected? They did not like it? They insist it is the cheapest 3D device on the market but they don't give the price?

It will still be a massive success at launch and after. I expect the 3DS to remain at thay price during a good amount of time. The machine can't fail in charts.