Nintendo on Thursday said it will drop the price of its hand-held 3DS console from $249.99 to $169.99 in the U.S., starting August 12.
"For anyone who was on the fence about buying a Nintendo 3DS, this is a huge motivation to buy now," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, said in a statement. "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."
The price drop will also occur in overseas markets between July and September. In an earnings statement, Nintendo said the move is intended to "create momentum for the Nintendo 3DS and accelerate its market penetration toward the year end sales season, when the lineup for the applicable software shall be enriched."
The company also revealed that it has sold 830,000 3DS devices since its March 27 U.S. launch. As a thank you to those who bought the 3DS, Nintendo is offering them 20 free game downloads from the Nintendo eShop. Users have until 11:59pm Eastern time on August 11 to connect to the eShop and take advantage of the offer.
Users who sign up will also be automatically enrolled in the 3DS Ambassador program, which—starting September 1—will allow them to download 10 NES Virtual Console games before they are made available in the eShop. That includes Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and The Legend of Zelda. Those games will eventually be paid games in the eShop, but Ambassadors will get them free. When updated versions are released later this year, Ambassadors will also get them at no cost.
Nintendo will also offer Ambassadors 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games, including Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWave, Inc: Mega Microgame, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. These will be exclusive to Ambassadors; Nintendo said it has no plans to release them to the general public.
Nintendo did say that Super Mario 3DLand and Mario Kart 7 will launch in November and December, respectively.
The 3DS has had somewhat of a lackluster launch. Several weeks after its debut, Nintendo said it had sold "just shy" of 400,000 3DS units, but Nintendo president Satoru Iwata later said sales fell below expectations. The 3DS will also probably have some competition this holiday season with the launch of the Sony PlayStation Vita. A Wi-Fi-only version of the Vita will retail for $249.99, and the Wi-Fi/3G version will retail for $299.99.
For more, see PCMag's full review of the Nintendo 3DS, the slideshow below, and the Nintendo 3DS Game Lineup Roundup. More 3DS games are expected this year.
Nintendo's next major release, meanwhile, will likely be the Wii U, the follow-up to the popular Wii gaming console. The company showed off the next-gen console at E3 this year and it is expected to his stores sometime in 2012.