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Nintendo 3DS Launching On March 27 For $250
Sam writes "Nintendo executive Reggie Fil-Aime today revealed US availability and pricing for the Nintendo 3DS at an event in the Nintendo World store in New York City. The 3DS will launch on March 27, 2011 with a retail price of $250 and will be available in two flavors: Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black. There will be roughly 30 games released between the launch day and E3 2011 (June 7 to June 9). These include Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Madden NFL Football, The Sims 3, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D, and LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. The device will have the same form-factor as the DSi and will be backwards compatible with both DS and DSi games. Users will also be able to download games via an online store, called the eShop. In Europe, the 3DS will launch on March 25, 2011. While Europeans will get the device two days early, pricing is not good news. Nintendo held a second event in Amsterdam today and said that pricing would be left up to retailers. Retailers in the UK are reportedly planning a £229.99 ($367.64) price tag, while other European retailers are going with €249 ($336.00)."
What's not in the summary or TFA is that this is the first handheld to be "fully" region locked. The PSP was region locked for movies, while the DSi had region locking for the online stores. But this is the first handheld where titles bought off store shelves will all be region locked. There's been evidence for some time that Nintendo are the most anti-consumer of the three console developers, but I think this is probably the final proof.
Combined with the console's price-point, this really does make me wonder where Nintendo are going with this. They've put it at a price tag which, like the PSP, is going to put it out of reach of most of the playground demographic, at least until Christmas. And yet among non-Japanese grown-up gamers, one of the biggest uses of handhelds is for when you go travelling. I'm not going to sit at home and play on a handheld, in general, when I have proper consoles and a gaming PC in my flat. Why should I peer at a tiny screen and cramp my hands up for a handheld's controls when I could be gaming in comfort? And my commute? I suspect that like many people who live in or near a major city, my commute on public transport is just too crowded and too rattly for handheld gaming. When travelling abroad, however, handhelds come into their own, and that's when I've gotten most of the use out of my PSP and DS. But if I can't pick up a game when I'm out in the US for the flight back to the UK? That's not going to make me happy.