System price cuts are nice and all, but you gotta lower game prices too if you want to be popular, says one market researcher.
“Lower 3DS hardware prices only address part of the problem,” says Billy Pidgeon to Industry Gamers. “I would like to see Nintendo cut the retail price of packaged software to a range of $20 to $25 for the 3DS,” he added.
Currently 3DS games are priced at $40, 25% more than DS games and about 95% more than iOS games. For those sitting on the 3DS fence, would $20-25 games make you jump?
ModestMrGreen
I think the software prices on 3DS are definitely too high. Bringing them down to even DS levels would be much appreciated. Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening because Nintendo doesn’t seem to recognize this as an issue. There’s a difference between maintaining the value of software and overpricing it. The price-value equation is completely out of whack, here.
monkat
I’m not the one sitting on the fence here, but yeah.
It’s like a recent “Penny Arcade” comic; I could buy 40 mobile games, or one 3DS game. I mean, a lot of the time the 3DS game will be much longer and will be of a higher quality, but still…that’s 40 games. Even at $20 or $25, that issue would be much less…there.
Alas, this is a non-issue since Nintendo will never do it for as long as Mario will still sell.
Skotski
I’d buy a 3DS game at its current price… it’s the same price I paid for DS games. I don’t see what’s so tough about spending $40 for a game that can last as long as most console games these days.
I suppose for simpler puzzle games, I’d get them for a cheaper price.
Mostly because I don’t play much puzzle games. …which is why I just get them on the DSiWare. 😛
monkat
Also…According to ( http://148apps.biz/app-store-metrics/ ), the average iOS game price is $1.39, so a 3DS game is roughly 28.77x the price of an iOS game. 88% more would be $2.61
Artefacto
My perception of prize has been warped by piracy and iOS prices. Everything above $5 is already too expensive for me. On consoles, a $20 tag is tops for me.
David
I don’t mind full-priced games if they can take advantage of systems features like AR cameras or StreetPass.
Pierre
Of course there will eventually be the budget line of 3DS software at the $19.99 price point. Thankfully, the device is backwards compatible with the DS line of games and software.
Personally, I would like to see $30 be the price for new release, top of the line games. The average price for new releases could be as much as $25.
Gern
How about 3Ds games for $2 or $3? That would make me jump. Nintendo should start trying to beat the Apple app store at is own game and start offering super cheap 3DS games for download. Then the bigger blockbuster games like Pokemon could be priced at $20-$30. These past two years, I have been really impressed with iPhone games and xbox live arcade games. They are cheap and fun. Nintendo needs to start getting a lot more serious with their online marketplace and take them on.
Ac
If I were nintendo I would have cut the prices of software (digital and retail) rather than the system. Their software prices in today’s market is really what is out of hand. The fact that people can buy a 3DS at the discounted price and get free games is a joke. Being a so called ambassador is a joke.
Mohan
Honestly I think 3DS games should have been priced at $30 and maybe $40 for the games with Squinx and Nintendo tax on them. But $40 for games like Pacman…really come on, that’s just insane and recipe for collecting dust on store shelves.
nin
a lot of the people commenting here aren’t exactly seeing the big picture. just because a game is cheaper won’t mean it will still be of the same quality. if nintendo were to lower the price of games to 20-25 dollars (and especially 2-3 dollars) they would wind up hemorrhaging money, and would thus have to lower the quality of their games. sure those little ios games are entertaining, but they don’t have much depth, i would far rather play pokemon or LoZ then to play something like angry birds (not saying it’s a bad game, it just kinda gets old fast). All i’m saying is that lowering it below $30 would make a negative impact on game quality in the future. it’s often been said, quality over quantity. i believe that this holds true.
Hitokiri_Ace
I still can’t understand the fact iOS games are compared to real, full, console/portable console games… It’s like comparing a candy bar with a full meal. Sure, they both taste good, but doesn’t one obviously cost more for it’s substance? *shrug*
Not to say that I hate iOS, I’m currently waiting to buy the new iTouch, whenever it comes out. I love games like Cut the Rope, Angry Birds, and Plants vs. Zombies. They are fun mini-games, and they are cheap.. Thus the term mini-games. You could take every mini-game from Mario Party and turn it into an iOS game, worth $1. Doesn’t that make sense that hundreds of those games and re-playability = $50?
tl:dr… Mini-games vs. Games… which is better? >.> Why care? If it’s fun… play it..
JMC611
Personally, I don’t see why people complain about the price of the games. DS games are usually 35$, so I don’t see why people complain about the extra 5 bucks. Expecting them to drop the price of 3DS games to 20$ is just downright stupid, in my opinion.
ghettoska
Ill worry about the price when I actually have to start spending money on them. Right now I would pay 50 if I could just get another A rated title to play.
Cory
I say yes. I would buy a 3DS at $250 if games were $30 at most (I’m saying $30 trying to be reasonable still, but I rarely buy any games, including console games, at anything more than $25, I just have that I need to pay for that I can’t afford $40-$60 per game) but even at $170 I wouldn’t buy one with games at $40. But then again I’ve been looking on Amazon and some what I would find decent 3DS games I can find decently cheap so I might buy this week before Friday for the ambassador program at Walmart, but either way the $40 per game is the barrier that made me not buy a 3DS on day one.
Hell, there are still half a dozen DS games that I want to buy but can’t at $35 a piece.
JG
Should be $29.99
Skotski
Barely thought-out movie handheld games should be reduced in price… or at least just reserved for DSiWare.
They shouldn’t waste the plastic like that just for a mediocre title.
doughboy74
I believe they should be in that range. That may be a moot point as many of us are still waiting on the software. Software sells hardware. End of story. I remember I didn’t by my DS until the DS Lite came out. I bought my DS Lite back in March of 2006. The original DS came out November 2004!!! By that time (almost a year & a half later), the good games were there. I am still waiting…
lololol
I’d pay 40.00 for a good game. I also wouldn’t pay 25 to 30 for what’s out now or announced.
Sam
YES definitely.
RisnDevil
While it would be nice for cheaper full-retail games, Nintendo needs to really drop the price of eShop content and open up what is allowed. This would allow them to compete with iOS while still giving full-featured games and content to those that want it.
Nin3DS
I’m not sure to be honest. Yes, lower prices might help, but you need better games first. Remember, if there are no games people want to buy, you can reduce the price to pretty much zero and they won’t sell. Even the games on Apple’s stores have some good games available there.
Not to mention, a good game can easily get people to pay quite a bit more than minimum price, note that the Wii and original DS didn’t need a price cut for months if not years, and their best games still sell at about full price.
Ross
noothing much is making me excited for my 3ds. I got it had my fun and now what?
i even got OOT and i still havn’t finished it. Im sad to say my gaming life may actually be behind me, now i have law school and work as well. I dont feel the same about games in general. Cheaper games wouldn’t cut it. I think it needs ‘apps’ like for phones, cheap, inexpensive/free games with 3d effects. thatd make me carry it on the train 🙂
frstOne
Yes, I agree, $20 is the right price (I prefer a good game for $40, than 40 iPhone games, but still.)
King Salamon
I agree that the price of software being reduced would encourage me to buy more software.
The comparison to iOS is not accurate as iOS software can’t hold a candle to most DS/3DS software in terms of quality/length of gameplay etc.
That being said, I’ve picked up 8 games so far for the 3DS and other than my launch copy of Street Fighter, I haven’t paid full retail for any of them. My latest example was my PacMan/Galaga game for the 3DS – $13.50. (No it wasn’t stolen, I just take advantage of store promotions and price match like crazy!)
EdEN
Don’t really see a problem with the price as I’ve already been paying $35-40 for my DS games for the last year or so.
Know what’s funny? How come NO ONE is complaining about the price of Vita games? Sure, we don’t have a final price for the games but if they’ll be “like a PS3 in the palm of your hand” that, to me, sounds like $50-60 per game.
NZA36
better games, lower prices, no gimmicks
Skotski
@NZA36
The problem with the idea of “no gimmicks” is that… well… “gimmicky is in the eye of the beholder”. Everything’s considered a gimmick, you realize that right?
3D graphics (not the pop-out 3D, just the normal kind of 3D) was considered a gimmick. The analog stick was considered a gimmick. L & R buttons were gimmicky for many games in the beginning. Touch control is gimmicky, motion control is gimmicky, and 3D-3D is gimmicky.
But you know what’s crazy?
Gimmicks add a unique x-factor to fun!
Not only that, but eventually gimmicks become standard once “mastered”. It no longer becomes a gimmick, and becomes something that people feel like they can’t live without.
…for now, 3D-gaming seems gimmicky… but in the future, it may very well become a standard. It’s a tiny screen, and that always put-off many gamers from picking handheld titles over their home console versions: But the 3D makes the world feel deep and vast (due to how you feel like you’re looking through a window into a deeper world on the other side) without the need of a larger screen – to me, that isn’t gimmicky, that’s intelligent design.
NZA36
@Skotski
Gimmicks are fine if the fundamentals are taken care of, but not fine if they are meant to be the sole reason for the platform’s existence. 3D visuals on top of great games is fun to an extent. I agree with the fun factor.
And I don’t consider important, functional features to be gimmicks. Shoulder buttons, polygonal game environments, and even touch controls have been used effectively so as to cause people to not want to see those features go away. Those features are game-changing. Wiimotes and stereoscopic 3D are doing nothing of the sort. The best games of this generation don’t have either of those gimmicks as a primary feature contributing to its greatness.
I can’t think of many Wii games that absolutely need motion control, this feature was poorly used and made games more annoying to me 9 times out of 10. It got to the point where they were needlessly shoehorning motion controls into otherwise great games like Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong.
Now we have 3D, fine, but what else is there to get me to ditch my 2DS? How is the 3D being used in gameplay to make me think that I would never want to go back to 2D? To me, it looks like these gimmicks are too distracting to Nintendo. It’s like they don’t have the discipline to make real games on capable hardware first, then add fun gimmicks second.