Yes let's price this baby at $600 without any games and the first 2 million people will buy it without content, I.E Software, movies, etc.

I think he is thinking Ipods and Iphone prices for this thing... Nintendo is not Apple moron.

It's not Nintendo's way of doing business, premium pricing for early adopter.

You'll have to realize, they don't cut prices until long long after, unlike other, cutting price once or more within first year.

To be honest, I don't like scalpers at all. Let those that really want it buy it...

Man Pachter another reason to think your out of your mind. Nintendo needed to price the console reasonably fact is consumers wouldn't be eager to shell out 300-500USD. A higher price may not lead to fewer sales initially as all the dedicated Nintendo fans, fanboys and true gamers would still buy the system near launch.

But Nintendo thinks in long term. This winter , next winter would the 3DS continue selling if it cost more then 300USD? Or would Nintendo have to cut prices within a year or two to sell? Fact is if Nintendo did cut the price it would piss off all the early adopters, also consumers might not buy it even if Nintendo cut the price because the damage would already be done.

Fact is Nintendo knows at 250USD they won't have to cut the price for years to come. It is reasonable for the hardware and consumers will continue to buy it untill at least 2013 when Nintendo might need to consider a price cut. But by then Nintendo will probubly have a new model.

Fact is Nintendo's 3DS is share holder friendly. More sales over the next two years is friendly. If 3DS cost 300 their would be fewer units sold. With fewer units sold fewer games would be sold meaning less software profit. With less hardware and software sold the share holders would be loosing more money.

Fact is Nintendo is not stupid. Even Microsoft and Sony launch hardware at a loss knowing software sales might redeem them. Why would Nintendo raise the price and alienate consumers. The cheaper the price the more hardware and software gets sold.

More money is good for share holders!

I actually agree with him here, there are people complaining that the price is too high, but they are so in love with the thing that they are going to buy it a launch anyway, hell i think if it was 300 they would still buy it

I don't think you can take hypocritical posters as a good sample for the sales of the system.

Actually in November when I pre-ordered my 3DS EBGames told me the price was going to be 300$. Now of course I knew that it was preliminary numbers. But I was still ready to fork out the dough I would gladly pay 300CDN but I gotta admit being able to buy a game with that extra money is more then welcomed news for me.

@joecool7  at least your real about it!! 

@lordtheknight maybe maybe not, we'll see come May and I think your underestimating the power of  3D! (or it could be possible im overestimating)

The point is that focusing on the tech has shown to often come at the expense of the quality of the game itself. One notorious example is Final Fantasy XIII, but it's not the only one.

It probably will sell out, and it might end up being $500 on ebay, but anyone who thinks that is reason enough to charge (dramatically) more at launch is a moron ...

If I buy a system at launch for $500 and then it gets a price reduction soon after how likely am I to buy their next system at launch? If their next console "struggles" to sell initially because of this decision, what kind of message does that send about their product to potential consumers (and game developers)?

Since Iwata has taken over Nintendo's strategy seems to be to release a product at a price people (generally) see as reasonable and to maintain that price throughout the generation; and while they may lose revenues up front from this, when they maintain a higher margin later in the generation they probably recover these losses (and more).

@lordtheknight but the FFs before that usually put some focus on tech and they turn out alright. Uncharted 2 is a game that focuses on tech and is good