I’ve now finished work for the day to return home and start on this week’s comic. But before I start, I noticed a surprising piece of information floating around the internet.

It seems that as of August 12th, Nintendo will be dropping the price for the 3DS. The  handheld system, which is less than a year old, will be coming down to $169.99 from it’s original launch price of $249.99. They’ve made the drop as an incentive for more people to go out and grab themselves a 3DS. Here’s what Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime had to say:

“For anyone who was on the fence about buying a Nintendo 3DS, this is a huge motivation to buy now.” Going on to add “We are giving shoppers every incentive to pick up a Nintendo 3DS, from an amazing new price to a rapid-fire succession of great games.”

Also, to calm the masses that already purchased a 3DS within the last 5 months, Nintendo will be those with a new Ambassador Status. What does “Ambassador Status” even mean? Nintendo gave an explanation of what to expect from this new program.

These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11. These users will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. The program contains two elements:

1. Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Consolegames at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost
2. By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

Not sure if that will drive me to get a 3DS before the price drop, but I’m definitely going to be thinking about grabbing one this year. But first, it’s time to get back to drawing.

Source [GameInformer]

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