Nintendo Cuts Price Of 3DS In Japan By 40% To $190, Other Markets To Follow

We’ve seen many price drops in the video gaming industry in the last 30 years, but I personally can’t remember such a radical move: Nintendo just announced [in English, PDF] that they will cut the price of their (relatively) new 3D portable gaming system 3DS by a whopping 10,000 Yen ($127) to 15000 Yen ($190).

That’s a 40% price drop from the original price of 25,000 Yen – an almost unbelievable number for a device that was launched in Japan on February 26 (and one month later in the US and other places). The Japanese street price will be effective as early as August 11. Nintendo says that other regions will see a price cut sometime between “July and September” but that “the ranges and the timings of the markdown will be different from that of Japan”.

The good news is that Mario is ready to hit the 3DS: Nintendo says that Super Mario 3D Land is coming in November, with Mario Kart 7 to follow one month later, according to big N’s press release.

The company was never really happy with the sales numbers for the 3DS – for example, it took the device 13 weeks to hit million sold units while the original DS just needed 4 weeks for that milestone.

In April, Nintendo reported a 66% drop in profits for the past fiscal year – it looks like the Wii U can’t come soon enough.