Nintendo 3DS Release Dates, Prices for Europe and U.S. Revealed.

Published on 01-25-2011 05:42 AM

Nintendo on Wednesday officially revealed release dates as well as recommended prices of its highly-anticipated 3DS portable video game systems in the European Union and the United States. The handheld with autostereoscopic 3D screen will cost in the U.S. less than in Japan, but will become available only in late March. Europeans will pay most for the 3DS.

Nintendo 3DS will become available in Europe on March 25, 2011, and will be released in the U.S. on the 27th of March. The portable console will cost $249 in the U.S., which is lower than ¥25 000 ($304) in Japan and much lower than €249 ($335) in Europe or £219 - £229 ($349 - $365) in the UK. As previously reported, Nintendo will release the highly-anticipated gadget on 26th of February in Japan.
Since all consoles will be virtually locked to their region of purchase, games acquired in one region may not work with consoles from other regions. As a result, it will be impossible to buy a Nintendo 3DS in the U.S. and then use it with games released in Europe or Japan.
Earlier this month in an interview with a Japanese news-paper, Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, said that the company planned to sell 1.5 million of 3DS consoles in Japan in its first month (starting from February, 26) and ship 4 million of the new-generation portable game systems worldwide by the end of March. Given the launch dates in Europe and the U.S., it is clear that Nintendo anticipates incredible demand towards the world's first portable game console with stereo-3D screen.

"Nintendo 3DS is a category of one - the experience simply does not exist anywhere else. You have to see Nintendo 3DS to believe it. And it's like nothing you have ever seen before," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime.
Nintendo 3DS features a 3.53” autostereoscopic 3D top screen with 800x240 resolution (400 pixels for each eye) and a 3.02” bottom touch screen with 320x240 resolution. It has three 0.3MP cameras – one inner and two outer – to deliver the stereo-3D effect and take stereo-3D pictures. It includes a motion sensor, a gyro sensor, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n controller, a Slide Pad that allows 360-degree analog input and so on. The device also has a special slider that can increase, decrease or disable stereoscopic 3D (S3D) effect. The 3DS comes in form-factor that is similar to the predecessors and is fully compatible with Nintendo DS titles. The console uses DMP Pica 200 graphics processor. As announced previously, it will have a slot for SD cards as well as support cartridges for previous-gen DS systems. When playing stereoscopic 3D games specifically developed for 3DS, the console will last 3.5 to 5 hours depending on conditions.

When playing DS or DSi games, which are naturally 2D only, the system will have a battery life of 5 to 8 hours. Full charge of the batter takes around 3.5 hours.
During the launch window (between the March 25/27 launch date and the E3 Expo in early June) more than 30 games will be available to Nintendo 3DS owners.

Source: Xbit Labs

Categories:
Hardware,
Gaming

7 Comments

mr. nails - 01-25-2011, 06:17 AM
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while i will definitely get one of these the price point is ridiculously high. for that amount of money i'd finally grab me a ps3.

Funkin' - 01-25-2011, 07:25 AM
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Can't freakin' wait. But just like mr. nails, I'm also going to wait a bit to grab one. I'll wait until the price drops to $200 or so. $250 is a bit too much for a handheld(so is $200 though), and there's really not much in the launch games department that i'm really interested in(at least from the list I saw, there may be others). There's a couple, but I don't want to pay $250 and then only have a couple games to play.

So it looks like this will be the first Nintendo machine, from as long as I can remember, that I won't be getting at launch. Besides, by the time I get one, I'm sure there will be at least a couple really good flash carts out for it.

All in all though, I'm really excited for this. And I cannot wait to get one. It's going to be really hard to fight the urge to buy one at launch.

mr. nails - 01-25-2011, 02:25 PM
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so, if this is gonna be $250 @ launch i can only imagine that the psp2 will be around $300+

the psp2 will support 3G networking, LED screen, 2 nubs (looks like a ps3 controller) and touch screen.

also, psp phone is coming out soon as well (or w/e it's called).

duke0102 - 01-25-2011, 04:43 PM
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It's that price mainly because of the glasses free screen. Say, 150 for current PSP so an extra 100 gets you 3d and better graphics, not bad when you break it down.
Specs look good:
http://kotaku.com/5568573/nintendo-3ds-vs-psp-vs-iphone

Funkin' - 01-26-2011, 02:49 AM
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I had no idea that a psp2 was coming out. Two control sticks will definitely be a great thing to have on a handheld.

And yeah, this 3DS is pretty packed with a bunch of goodness. So I can totally understand the launch price. Nintendo has never been a game company to over-price their machines(in my opinion at least). And considering all the fantastic games the DS has had in it's lifespan so far, I'm expecting nothing less for the 3DS. So I have no doubt every person that purchases one will get their money worth out of it.

EDIT: Check out GBATemp's, there's some pic's of what the psp2 might look like. Wow, it looks like there will be an announcement on Thursday about the handheld. I had no idea that they were this close to revealing a new one. And honestly, I'm a bit surprised. I thought the overall handheld sales/game sales for the psp didn't do to good...

mr. nails - 01-26-2011, 05:43 AM
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Originally Posted by Funkin'

I'm a bit surprised. I thought the overall handheld sales/game sales for the psp didn't do to good...

the psp started off slow in the US and mediocre in Japan, but over the last year or so the psp skyrocketed and has been cleaning house. so much so it's been top dog over selling ps3/360/wii. the reason is that they have actually started dishing out A LOT of (good) games as of late. now, if they could just learn how to advertise the damned thing. i liked my DS. it was a good little machine with a lot of great rpg's, but i loved the psp. not nearly as many games, but the systems hardware is so much better.

Rart - 01-26-2011, 07:59 AM
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PSP cleaning house? Hardly. I did some quick google searches, the only thing I could find was that the PSP outsold some consoles in Japan, which is an entirely different market. Unless you can reference a (reputable) news source on the topic, I don't buy it for a second. The psp still pales in comparison to other consoles, and more importantly in comparison to the DS in overall market share worldwide. The PspGo was a colossal failure, and Sony continues the trend of mindlessly providing better "hardware" (a la PS3) while failing to provide any new sort of gameplay innovation. You can't simply provide superior "hardware" and expect a product based on gameplay to sell. Fresh, interesting new takes on gameplay mechanics (when implemented well) are what sell, and this is what Nintendo has proved this generation of consoles and handhelds that Sony seems to fail to understand.