Pachter shares thoughts on recent 3DS news, thinks Nintendo will regret price point
This information comes from Michael Pachter…
“I thought the price point would be higher… but $249 is pretty good. I don’t think the uptake will be too quick on this. People thought the DS had a really quick uptake but that wasn’t the case actually. This is for the long haul, and DS isn’t going away; it’s targeted at a different demographic. To me, what remains to be seen is software pricing. So far, it’s a little higher in Japan and they haven’t mentioned what they’ll be here. And let’s face it – they are competing with converging devices. I think they’re aware of that but this is obviously a higher profile, full game experience as opposed to snack gaming you might see on the iPhone. There’s room for it, and of course we have to see what Sony’s going to come out with too. I’m impressed that they had the confidence to charge $249; I think that they’re going to regret it. It’s going to sell out and they’re leaving money on the table. I’m impressed that they’re this consumer friendly – that really matters. So it’s not shareholder friendly, but consumers are going to love the $249 price point. We can call bullsh*t on Reggie [Fils-Aime] a lot, but I actually agree with him. If you explain the feature set to most consumers, they would say $300 or more. So $249 is a bargain, and I think this thing is going to be on eBay for $500 immediately. I think the biggest problem they’ll have is that you’ll never see one in stores in 2011. It’ll be sold out forever. We’ll get like a million or 1.25 million, and so will Europe, and those will be gone in weeks. Let’s hope they can make 2 million a month and ship 800,000 a month to the U.S. so consumers have a prayer of getting one by Christmas. I think the software lineup is impressive and everything I’ve seen here so far is really good. My favorite so far is that over-the-shoulder Street Fighter – that’s real 3D! The content’s great, and 30 titles in the first two months is double what you’d normally see from a product launch. I’m especially impressed by how many different third-parties are supporting it, because you’ve seen the third parties shying away from the Wii the last couple years, but it’s nice to see them coming back. Interestingly, you’re not seeing the U.S. [publishers] here… it’s been Ubisoft and the Japanese guys, and EA but only with one title (Madden). But there’s no reason why Activision, THQ, EA and so on wouldn’t embrace this. Overall, great price point, great content… my take is that consumers win.”
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m just relieved the 3DS won’t cost $300. I thought that would be a real possibility, and if not, I figured it might be priced at around $275.
