I happened to watch a few times the new 3DS ad in Italy (but I guess marketing strategy will be the same across the whole Europe): basically it says two things, that it's NOT just a DS and that now it costs less than DSi XL. While the first statement just says that they must reckon they didn't market it well enough up until now, the second underlines the bad fact that they are actually keeping the price of the previous model too high to sell better the new one, so they can't sell well one without damaging the other. Didn't Ninty learn anything from Sony's failures at the beginning of this gen? PS3 didn't sell well not because PS2 was too cheap, but because it itself was too expensive and still lacked a system selling game library (and marketing was appalling). Now PS3, with a decent price and an excellent game library, sells well, more than competitors and the dirt cheap PS2, but it could sell even better with better marketing. Thinking that overpricing the previous system is a solution is plain dumb, it will just damage sales of that system, subtracting them to give them of the new, instead of the better solution of selling both well targeting them to different market segments. 3DS needs right price (check), games (situation getting better) and good marketing (omigosh), not cheap and clumsy tricks.

You're not kidding, 3DS cleared 70k in Japan this week, more than double the PSP sales.
http://gamingeverything.com/?p=9835

Lol Nintendo doesnt need to market the 3ds simply because its getting a free ride. PS Vita wont be out this year except Japan, and even that is only for 2 weeks in december.

Why spend marketing money when word of mouth is doing the job? Spend marketing money when the competition is actually out lol.

My point is another: killing DSi XL to give 3DS its sales isn't such a good idea, selling well both is possible and it would give both HW and SW higher sales, a win-win scenario. About spending on marketing, Ninty must pay also bad one, so it totally makes sense to produce good one instead. I don't think TV networks are airing those ads for free or at a strong discount because they are so bad. About PSVita, I didn't even consider it, this is all about Nintendo marketing and internal policies and strategies, lately it looks like Ninty thinks it must necessarily kill an old product that still sells well to be able to sell well a new one, this is plain masochistic.

This confirms that right price, more games and marketing that be at least decent, not appalling, sell systems, and it confirms too that it's not necessary to kill DSi XL to achieve it (in fact, according to Media Create, XL's sales even grew a little this week, like all the other DS models and PSP too, actually every home and portable console except Wii sold better WoW, when 3DS had that big boost).

Watched that ad again, but today I've gone to a mall, and saw what was obvious: despite 3DS list price being now lower than DSi XL, street prices are like they should be, retailers are now discounting DSi XL to make it up to 20€ cheaper than 3DS. Now I'm less surprised by sales, the huge marketing drove 3DS sales up again despite the lack of new big games (but the long version of the ads announces a few of them, the Ninty published ones), but DS itself went a little up too, despite the attack from its own younger brother, because retailers themselves fixed what was the worst part of Nintendo's new marketing, so 3DS enjoyed the marketing push, but DS didn't suffer the backlash.

I believe people on this site view ads like they are the all mighty god sent gift that allows companies to sell the most of their product as possible. While ads help, I believe word of mouth is better than advertising. Look at brands like Honda. They hardly advertise (mainly just when they are trying to unload the old model year once the new models are about to come out) and yet they still manage good sales. Why is this? Word of mouth. If a company doesn't have to advertise because their products are reliable, well priced, etc.. then that is the best situation to be in. I hardly watch TV mainly because I hate ads. Anyways, it is better to be able to sell a product with as little advertising as possible. To have to advertise constantly to sell a product shows that the product isn't that good in the first place.

I think the problem with this type of marketing is that it still implies to some degree that the 3DS is just another DS.

It's so much more than a DS! ...but it costs less than a DSiXL!

It sounds like some sort of mid-tier model.

It reminds me of the marketing in US stores over the Summer that had the DSL, DSi, and 3DS all on the same banner, with nothing to signify that the 3DS was an entirely new system aside from the little 3 in its name.

But amongst those actually wanting a Nintendo portable, pricing DSi XL that way damages its potential sales (for those wanting a bigger screen and waiting for DSi XL to become cheaper, other models aren't an option). Let's not forget LL is currently the best seller DS in Japan, and it has been for quite a long time.

Tbh with MH Tri G coming to the platform that's a given just wait until MH4 arrives all other platforms that week will be murdered.