Nintendo 3DS Arrives March 31st in Australia

3DS

I'll have my big piece up on the Sydney Nintendo 3DS Launch Event tomorrow, but for now, here's the big news. March 31st release. $349.95.

To be honest, that's pretty good. Given that the US$250 3DS price point is the same as the Wii's original launch price (which here was $400), that $50 decrease is notable. The different status of Nintendo in Australia and the wild economic fluctuations since 2006 definitely have something to do with that, but even so it's a reasonable, if not cheap, price for the product. The big question will be games. Perhaps $79? That's a stab in the dark, but a not unlikely one. We'll have to wait for retailers to start listing as we approach the launch date.

Some may still find it worth the effort to import a system from the US, but given that the 3DS is region locked it's a bit of a long-term commitment that the original DS sidestepped. You can already see how the mainstream media will go nuts over this new product, which when you think back to the 'spot the Nintendo ad' days of the mid noughties, is a hell of a lot of progress. I guess you can thank the two million Nintendo DS owners for bankrolling Nintendo Australia's ad budget.

Stay tuned to Sliced Gaming for our thoughts on the system and its games, and our debrief on the launch party.

Reader Comments:

Posted by Ant292 09/02/2011 5:41am

That's not stupidly, ridiculously expensive at all! I'll take ten, good shopkeep!

Posted by insanopointless 09/02/2011 10:48am

I detect sarcasm

It's high, but perhaps not as high as I thought. I think, for once, I'll probably wait for either:
1) Zelda and Starfox to come out
2) Price drop (probably longer)
3) Redesign (probably longer)

When I finally got my PSP in the US, the thing was cheap as, and all the AAA games on it (not many, I suppose ) were all 10-20 bucks.

Posted by Master Chief 09/02/2011 7:01pm

Yeah I'll pay more than a Wii for one... lol.

Did you hear about NZ? OVER FOUR HUNDRED!!!

Posted by nshady 09/02/2011 9:39pm

I'll bet the NGP is more than a PS3.

Posted by Master Chief 09/02/2011 9:59pm

Not bloody likely, after the failure of PSP Go's pricepoint..

But it is Sony, so we'll see.