Nintendo Reveals Finalised DS Launch Line-up, Price, Everything...

Nintendo have reasonably priced the DS as I knew they would, since 99 quid is also roughly what previous hand helds from the cost at launch. This is around my estimate made last year.

As for the game prices I'd say that 19-29 pounds will give some developers a bit more leverage than all the GB generations (and yes I know that's a retail price above). This will allow them to experiment with simple puzzle games or more complex and expensive games (hope so anyway). Along with that we might actually see DS games drop in price, to perhaps a kind of players choice line of games. GBA and previous version have never had this sort of thing and it will be needed if SOny produce a similar PSP budget range down the line a year or two.

Don't forget that if you are not happy with the DS launch games (I do agree that it should be better than it is, with stronger titles like Metroid, Advance Wars at from day one), you can opt for buying imports with ease online. Yes, u.k/europe do get things last but the bonus of that is more games at launch and afterwards.

Expect the uk/euro DS ad blitz to start in February if it's on sale in March. I'm sure if this was Sony, they would have started ads during christmas to build things up.

Cheer up people, don't worry, be happy.

Actually they did produce a GBA Player's Choice range at same time they produced a Super NES range (1998, I think). They didn't produce them for very long, as as far as I know the only notable title was Zelda: Link's Awakening.



The problem is that at the moment the only game I personally would class as good that will be available will be Touched!. Will games such as Yoshi be available in the US ready for the UK launch?

Doh! Thanks for the correction, Deeptone.

Ah yes, so I have. I'm trying to find information on it, but it's pretty scarce. However, here's an interesting bit of info I found which seems to suggest it's not much at all: "Sony hopes that the inclusion of programming tools will convince Customs & Excise that the PlayStation 2 is a computer rather than a video games console, which will enable it to avoid paying two per cent import duty on the devices." Click here for the source.

Wow, wasn't that a long time ago? Anyhow, a mere two percent would account for less than £2 of the DS price. Even if you add a full £2 to my previous figure of £86.70, that still makes an £89.99 launch reasonable taking into account a similar profit margin to the Japanese system and the taxes.

The only reason Sony was worried about the 2%, I'd gather, is that paying £6 per system on the early £300 launch lot gets costly. For example, the UK's allocation of 165,000 units for launch cost Sony almost £1,000,000 in taxes on it's own.


Don't get me wrong, it's a better deal than we've gotten in the past, but it's still not as good as it could be. Agreed on the software issue though - my interest is currently limited to Project Rub and Super Mario 64 DS of the currently available titles. Oh, and maybe Chokkan Hitofude (One Line Puzzle).


Indeed. Doing some number crunching a while ago, it was quite evident that Nintendo is experiencing the worst battering here. Why the company consistently mistreats such a large market is beyond me.


Interesting idea, I'll see what I can do and with sufficient results, make a new topic out of it.

D'oh!!

I meant dollars...

NEWS JUST IN!!!

Well, something my mate's just told me anyway:

Members of Nintendo VIP Club are being offered pre-release hardware now - for £130 you get the DS, Mario 64, Metroid Demo, a Wario Ware Demo and a T-Shirt.

Now that's not too shabby...

They take 1000 star points, too. So, the benefit you get is a T-Shirt and an extra demo over somebody that buys a DS and Super Mario 64 DS at retail. Given the "within 28 days of your order being processed", I'd say you won't gain all that much over the retail date either.

Yeah, I looked at it too and decided to wait until launch.

You're all forgetting the lesson we learnt from Nintendo's European gamecube release. If I recall rightly, the system was supposed to retail at £149.99, undercutting the PS2 by £50 and the XBox (at the time) by about £70 (I'm not positive about these prices - the old memory don't work as well these days). Then Nintendo actually released it at £129.99, scupering the other two and facing a price fixing allegation.

So, what I'm saying, is just because it says £99 release - it may be a bit lower. I reckon the GBA SP will take a price drop too.

Only time will tell.

The Gamecube was originally supposed to retail at £170, but the Xbox wasn't doing so well after a couple of months and Microsoft slashed it's £300 price tag down to £200. Facing a substantially smaller advantage than they'd planned for, Nintendo dropped the price to £130.

In the absence of similar heated competition, I'm guessing that Nintendo is going to sit tight until launch. The only thing I could see affecting this £99 RRP is Sony announcing a very competitive PSP launch price and date.

I agree. I don't think the DS will take a price drop.

I'm hoping the SP will though. I'd really like one of those, but not at £70 odd.

Argos are selling the black ones for £55. I have the original GBA, but this is tempting!

Yeah, I've got an original.

I'm hoping to pick up an SP when the DS has come out for £40.