Retailer admits to 3DS date/price guess

By Robert Purchese Published 1 July, 2010

€169.95 "pure speculation" - Nintendo.

Dutch online shop Bart Smit has told Eurogamer its date and price for the 3DS are internal expectations.

Nintendo hasn't sent anything official, the retailer told Eurogamer (via Eurogamer Benelux's Erwin Vogelaar), so Bart Smit made something up.

The shop guessed that the 3DS will be released on 15th March for the price of €169.95 (£140/$208).

A Nintendo spokesperson banged the final nail in the coffin, telling Eurogamer the price and date were "pure speculation".

Nintendo hasn't priced or dated the 3DS. The Mario maker wanted to harvest reaction from E3 before finalising strategy - product design included!

However, Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime has said the handheld will be out in all "major markets" by 1st April 2011.

The 3DS was Eurogamer's pick of the hardware on show at E3 - no small feat, considering Move, Kinect and the new Xbox 360 all made an appearance. Our hands-on impressions of the 3DS explain why..

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (24) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AphoticCosmos #1 2 years ago

    Hmm.

    It's still a decent price for what they're offering, as long as it coincides with other DS models having a price drop.

  • el_pollo_diablo #2 2 years ago

    "The Mario maker wanted to harvest reaction from E3 before finalising strategy - product design included!"

    In that case Nintendo please can you stick another analogue nub on it.

  • Hobo #3 2 years ago

    Had never heard of this retailer before this report. Is there stance supposed to be valid?

    Regardless, fantastic to see the news articles littered with retailer advertising!

  • YoshiMcTaggis #4 2 years ago

    This is news?! Fucking hell...

  • Stuz359 #5 2 years ago

    Sounds like the right price to me.

  • linksdad #6 2 years ago

    Looked great Nintendo apart from the aforementioned missing second nub. Good call devil chicken.

  • BillyBrush #7 2 years ago

    Will he be doing an Igor Chipolata tomorrow and asking them to lower the price he made up?

  • darkmorgado #8 2 years ago

    I agree with the second nub comments.

    But, if you think about it, the Wii only has a single analogue stick. From Nintendos point of view, they may well think that if so many people have been happy with a single analogue stick so far on a home console, then a second stick isn't needed.

    If you think about most games, what is the second stick actually used for? In most cases, it's the camera. Does this not then suggest that devs should focus more on creating intelligent cameras in 3D games? Galaxy 2, for example, has an almost perfect camera that always provides the best viewing angle. In fact, the only times I can think of when you needed to adjust the camera was to find a hidden 1up, that had been deliberately placed outside the camera's view angle.

    The only genre I can think of where the second stick is essential is in FPS. But even then you are only using it to move the view up/down, something which could be easily achieved by using the shoulder buttons for up/down respectively, with firing mapped to the face buttons.

  • RobTheBuilder #9 2 years ago

    It is news if you are trying to save up for one!

  • AliRay #10 2 years ago

    I think I saw a DSi price-drop from Sainsburys (not the best indicator, but still) to £99, so this looks like it might be in-line with a £140-£150 tag for the 3DS.

    Definitely bagging one at that price, day one.

  • IainMcKenzie #11 2 years ago

    The DS doesn't need two analogue nubs because the touch screen can be used as an analogue input.

  • chrisjm #12 2 years ago

    The DS launched at £100

    I reakon a £150 price point is VERY profitable for them.

  • schnide #13 2 years ago

    I'd love it to cost that much, but I think it'll be a little more. This thing is going to fly off the shelves.

  • Rajin #14 2 years ago

    Bartsmit is a very large retailer in the netherlands(on par with intertoys) The release price of the 3DS however is indeed pure speculation, especially since the release could be 1 year from now.

    Though Bartsmit has done this before and they were actually very close to the truth.
    Edited by 1 at 01/07/10 @ 10:32

  • roz123 #15 2 years ago

    Thats less then what im willing to pay

  • Toothball #16 2 years ago

    I was expecting around £150 or so. I'd probably go further than that.

  • speedjack #17 2 years ago

    I'm going with £149.99.

  • MatMan562 #18 2 years ago

    Would love that date to be corect, it's just two days after my birthday :) If the price is correct as well then Microsoft may want to reconsider selling Kinect for £130, I think most people would rather pay an extra tenner and get a whole new console

  • linksdad #19 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado, the wiimote IS the second analogue stick.

  • Nuada #20 2 years ago

    How about programmable shaders? I'd take that over a second analogue stick any day. Still if that's the price it'll be a day 1 purchase for me.

  • alcides #21 2 years ago

    250€

    Because you know you will buy it anyway.

  • Tallon4 #22 2 years ago

    I'm Dutch myself and ordered 4 3DS... There was no mention that the pre-order price was guaranteed, but then again, it was not listed as an estimated price. But I'll make them a decent offer:
    I'll not go to court if I get one for free :p

  • darc #23 2 years ago

    No idea what that 3D screen technology costs them, but if they base price off of E3 response, we'll all have to sell a kidney. :)

    3D without glasses! You have to *seriously* hate Nintendo to not be excited about that.

  • smelly #24 2 years ago

    >It is news if you are trying to save up for one!

    Someone makes up a price - based on next to nothing at all - and that's news?

    Right.. smelly says the 3ds will be 100 quid and will go on sale in august. ... Lets have an article about that...