The Nintendo 3DS date and price prediction thread

[Garth]

I won't buy one if it's £230+.

[Christopher]

I won't buy one if it's £230+.

Same. £220 is my high limit. I just don't think it'll be worth than that.

[Mafro]

I won't buy one if it's £230+.

Same. £220 is my high limit. I just don't think it'll be worth than that.

You'll cave at launch.

[Count Nood]

DSi should get you £70 part ex.

\o/

I'll be trading mine in then. Fortunately I don't have any DSiWare to worry about.

Hi.

Namco want Tales fans to tell them on Facebook and Twitter what they want.

Abyss 3DS is currently "winning".

Mmm. Is this hope I'm feeling?

A bit off topic here but it's ridiculous that we have to ask for it when the localisation is already complete. If it does keep "winning" then Namco could release it and say that we got through to them, but there's no reason whatsoever not to release the port in the West.

At least Namco seem to be listening to the fans at last, but if we're going to ask them for a Tales game then it really has to be Xillia. The three PS3 games and Abyss 3DS seem to the most popular requests, and since Xillia is the only one without any kind of option to play it in English at this point, I hope Namco will focus on localising that.

[The Alchemist Penguin]

There is a 5 percent sales tax (shohizei) levied on most products, although there are forces lobbying for it to be reduced back to the previous rrate of 3 percent.

http://www.japan-zone.com/new/money.shtml

5 strawberry floating percent.

5 PERCENT IS FAR TOO HIGH! TAKE IT BACK TO THE STILL RATHER HIGH, BUT SOMEWHAT ACCEPTABLE 3 PERCENT RIGHT NOW!

I won't buy one if it's £230+.

I always thought you weren't that interested in handhelds. I could be wrong, but I don't remember you dabbling in handhelds much before. Has something (or some game) caught your eye?

[Harry Bizzle]

¥25000 converts to £190, plus tax gives you ~£200. This doesn't take into account the "screw Britain" tax that companies like to add on, but I think Nintendo could forgo that in order to keep the price competitive and appealing. £200 without a game is considerably more expensive than a Wii, and I'm not sure the perceived value of a handheld is as high as a home console. It's also quite a lot to spend on a present for a child for a lot of families.

If it's more than £200 then I'm only getting one of them.

Maths not your strong point?

£190 + VAT = £228

EDIT - Basically if we paid exactly the same as Japan, the console would be £230. Except there are obvious extra costs in getting it to market outside of Japan. This is not a 'screw Britain' tax, its a legitimate extra cost involved.

It makes sense if it ends up being around £250. Of course I'm suggesting they'll pack in extra stuff for the west which would make a higher price likely.

£22 a unit extra to sell it out of Japan, eh?

[HSH28]

£22 a unit extra to sell it out of Japan, eh?

For starters they have to think about what the exchange rate is going to do.

But yeah £15-20 for shipping it half way round the world and associated costs doesn't seem outrageous to me.

[Garth]

I always thought you weren't that interested in handhelds. I could be wrong, but I don't remember you dabbling in handhelds much before. Has something (or some game) caught your eye?

I tend to buy Nintendo handhelds at launch, play a few games, then forget about them
I think I get caught up in the excitement.

[The Alchemist Penguin]

I tend to buy Nintendo handhelds at launch, play a few games, then forget about them
I think I get caught up in the excitement.

Ahh right, I never knew that. That's a pretty expensive thing to get caught up in.

[Shadow]

¥25000 converts to £190, plus tax gives you ~£200. This doesn't take into account the "screw Britain" tax that companies like to add on, but I think Nintendo could forgo that in order to keep the price competitive and appealing. £200 without a game is considerably more expensive than a Wii, and I'm not sure the perceived value of a handheld is as high as a home console. It's also quite a lot to spend on a present for a child for a lot of families.

If it's more than £200 then I'm only getting one of them.

Maths not your strong point?

£190 + VAT = £228

EDIT - Basically if we paid exactly the same as Japan, the console would be £230. Except there are obvious extra costs in getting it to market outside of Japan. This is not a 'screw Britain' tax, its a legitimate extra cost involved.

It makes sense if it ends up being around £250. Of course I'm suggesting they'll pack in extra stuff for the west which would make a higher price likely.

Does the RRP in Japan not include VAT?

Maths not your strong point?

£190 Less VAT in Japan gives net price of £161.70 + 20% UK VAT gives a price of £194.04. Round it up to £200 for tidiness and to cover other associated costs.

Regardless of any differences in exchange rate and exporting costs, they need to stick a price on it that people will be willing to pay. Nintendo aren't stupid, the Japanese RRP probably has close to a 100% mark-up, if they want to they can afford to reduce that mark-up slightly in order to offer an attractive price worldwide.

Another reason I don't think £250 will be the price is because Iwata has said in the past that he doesn't believe in reducing your RRP over time, and I don't think that three or four years from now £250 is going to work as an RRP. It will sell out at launch regardless, that's the nature of these things, but if this is a price they're going to stick with then it has to be £200.

[Mafro]

Hugowned.

[Iron Nan]

I just posted about the Japanese sales tax on the previous page, it's 5%.

[Harry Bizzle]

Hugowned.

He can't hear you over the sound of his tractor.





He'll be with you in a moment.



Also it is still, quite frankly, ridiculous to assume it will cost them £22 per unit in order to sell them on the other side of the planet.

[Lonely Angel]

I can justify €250, €280, maybe even €300. But €350.... no.

[Shadow]

Hugowned.

He can't hear you over the sound of his tractor.





He'll be with you in a moment.



Also it is still, quite frankly, ridiculous to assume it will cost them £22 per unit in order to sell them on the other side of the planet.

Isn't it like £25 to send a shipping container from China to the UK, you could probably fit several thousand 3DSes in 1 shipping container.

RE: My maths above. My maths was correct! My knowledge of tax in Japan was awry.

That gives us a with VAT UK price of £217 if Nintendo sell at the same Net price as they do in Japan (I don't think there's any reason to assume that they will), £220 UK RRP?

[Slartibartfast]

Does the Japanese price include their own sales tax though?

Edit, looked it up, couldn't believe the answer.

There is a 5 percent sales tax (shohizei) levied on most products, although there are forces lobbying for it to be reduced back to the previous rrate of 3 percent.

http://www.japan-zone.com/new/money.shtml

5 strawberry floating percent.

VAT != Sales Tax.

Sales is levied on everything, VAT only on the consumer.

[speedboatchase]

I can justify €250, €280, maybe even €300. But €350.... no.

Maaaybe €250, or just above that with a pack-in game (not Nintendogs+Cats, hopefully some better will be announced). €350 would way too crazy, even for Nintendo. Can't see it happening

[The Alchemist Penguin]

The £300 3DS has been pulled from Zavvi, with only the £3 pre-order version remaining. (The fact they had every 3DS model up there twice should have told people all they needed to know in the first place anyway) The Red 3DS remains up for preorder. \o/ WHSmith have dropped their version to £250 too.

[Lonely Angel]

The suspense is killing me.

[The Alchemist Penguin]

Someone on GAF is saying they've been told by management to expect no more than £200, and that £179.99 is the price being thrown around. I've a feeling that they're just looking at the Wii price and copying that though, but £180 would be really nice (and the price we would have got a few years ago! ).