I have been following prices and sales ranks on Amazon.com for a while now. Amazon has had multiple 3DS games available for pre-order, since sometime in December, and it appears that 3DS games just got a bump in the MSRP that will be asked of consumers.
Here's an image that shows what Amazon.com was asking for the pre-order prices on 3DS games, until this evening:
I just checked Amazon.com, and here are the new pre-order prices for those same 3DS games...you can click the links to see for yourself, and pre-order if you wish:
- Nintendogs + Cats for $39.99
(First party game, no change in pre-order price)
- Baseball 3DS for $39.99
(Third party game, $5 increase for pre-order)
- Contra 3DS for $39.99
(Third party game, $5 increase for pre-order)
- Frogger 3DS for $39.99
(Third party game, $5 increase for pre-order)
- Madden NFL Football 3DS for $39.99
(Third party game, no change in pre-order price)
- Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3DS for $39.99
(Third party game, $5 increase for pre-order)
- Pro Evolution Soccer 3DS for $39.99
(Third party game, $5 increase for pre-order)
- Winning Eleven 3DS for $39.99
(Third party game, $5 increase for pre-order)
Filtered Thoughts:
As you can see according to Amazon.com, it now appears $40 may be the standard MSRP price of new 3DS games. Now with Nintendo's big event happening in a few short hours around the world, either Amazon.com is raising prices just to be safe, or they are preparing their site ahead of time to be ready for all the people looking to pre-order after tomorrow's announcements.
Questions:
Do you think Amazon.com is showing the true price of 3DS games, at $39.99? If so, do you think that $40 is too much for 3DS games?
I personally, having the "Cheap Cheaper Cheapest" mindset, think $40 is ridiculous for portable versions of games...and yes, I'm judging a book by its cover, as I haven't played any of the games. Perhaps once I do, the $40 will be justified...but call me a skeptic.
Ah, awesome. I had heard that Amazon had pre-order prices listed for 3DS games, but I would have been totally oblivious that they changed any of them.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they have some inside information. Maybe they don't. When I first heard about the price listing, I thought it was odd that Nintendogs + Cats was among the highest priced at $40, when it is the single lowest priced game for the 3DS launch in Japan, at a 4,800 Yen price (which is what a typical DS games sell for in Japan at the moment).
Based on some early Iwata comments about 3DS game prices, I've thought since then that most of Nintendo's first party games would sell for $35 at most. But based on the Japanese launch game prices, publishers really wanna push for a higher typical price. I guess we'll need to see the pricing on a different, and (hate to use the word, but) more "core" game from Nintendo see what they want to be the typical price. But by the time the next Nintendo game comes out, we could have learned the U.S. prices...
I personally hope the typical price isn't $40, and I believe that Nintendo will push for $35 here in the states, but for the right games, I am willing to pay for a new copy of a 3DS game at $40. I think some people are comparing the App Store games (again, unreasonably cheap IMO) too closely with a typical handheld game when looking at price, when maybe they should be comparing the typical handheld game with a home console game when looking at price. If it matches the amount of content, but it's $10 or $20 cheaper, it's hard to say it's not a good deal.