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Nintendo Expected To Drop GBA Price To $80US
cdneng2 writes "gamesindustry.biz has the scoop that Nintendo is dropping the GBA price down to $80 in North America later this week! The $20 cut is aimed to stimulate sales for the Christmas run-up. The article also indicated that DS is rumoured to sell for $179 US."
Hopefully the article is wrong and Nintendo prices the DS at the $149.99. I think that is the magic place for a handheld right now, and going over that will make people (me at least) wait for the first price drop before buying.
If they wanted to combat piracy of GBA roms, then woundn't it make more sense to make the GAMES cheaper?
:D
I mean, people can just take the roms and then put write them onto a cartridge and play them for free. Especially if you already have the ROMS becuase you were emulating them.
It just seems to me that making the system cheaper does not really do anything to curb the theft of roms. Those that have the enclination to steal them still will. In fact, i would imagine that making the system cheaper (at least in the hand-held department) makes piracy MORE appealing. Basically because once you get the roms and write them to your own catridge, you get the benifit of free game AND the advantage of the portable system.
Of course, i could be WAY off base here. That is entirely possible. These are just my thoughts
I don't see the DS as the successor to the GBA, though - to me, it's just a niche toy (expensive + touch screen = niche). I'm sure that Nintendo will still put out games for the GBA and are not abandoning the platform - of course, I could be wrong ;) Anyway, there are still great games out there that I haven't gotten a chance to play yet, like Fire Emblem, Metroid: Zero Mission, etc. - if they do abandon the platform, well, that will mean that prices will go down for GBA games, right? I really can't see Nintendo selling DS games for $40-50 (what they sell for up here in Canada) when GBA games are selling in the same price range. Everybody wins!
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Excellent point! But...
If they were anywhere close in price non-bleeding edge consumers would choose the SP everytime due to its familiarity and broad range of titles.
Don't you think if they were close in price, that everyone would go for the DS, since it would play all of the GBA games *and* the new DS games?
Instead of "old & busted" vs "new & shiny", how about calling the markets "value focused" and "game focused". By lowering the price on the SP, they can now sell it to people who just aren't going to pay more than X amount of money for a system, with the hope that once they get them coopted, they can sell them a higher end system later.
In other words, I'd say this is more about protecting the GBA market, than trying to steer people towards the DS.
He decided to just watch the government, and kind of scale it down to size, and run his life that way. --Laurie Anderson
No, the $20 cut is being introduced cause I just bought one a week ago.
You did keep the receipt, right? Just go back to the store and get the price matched.