News - Nintendo 3DS UK pricing and launch date confirmed

[TooNice]

On the price end, it's same old same old. I predicted £224.99 before the news came out after I learned about the US pricing. For Nintendo consoles, it seems that taking the US price and dividing it by 1.1 gets a close estimate.

The RRP for the Wii for instance is $200 and £180. And The DS XL is $170 and £160. The DSi is even more of a joke, at $150 and £150. It's worth noting that even the Japanese aren't getting as good of a deal as the Americans. Not sure why either, AFAIK, their equivalent of VAT is at 5%.

The epic fail, for me, lies in the region locking. Stem piracy? How do they think that's going to 'stem piracy'? If anything, it's going to tempt people into finding a work around. And the chances that such work around would include means to play pirated games is probably high (unless they made it as resistant to tempering as Sony managed with the PS3). As someone who wants to be able to enjoy Japanese games (I am slowly going through my first text rich Japanese game at on my DS Lite at the moment), there is no way I am going to buy a machine that'll restrict me to UK games. 2 steps forward, 5 steps back. Nintendo, I am disappointed.

[gagaga]

the British people will pay over the market value for goods because we are greedy and a 'must have' social group

Yeah, and the americans/pretty much anyone, anywhere aren't?? Guess what, that's human nature, applies equally everywhere that we want the latest consumer stuff (see: 4x4s in Somalia, skiing in the Gulf, iPhones in downtown Sydney, satellite tv in the favellas of Rio, etc etc).

The core of the pricing is that almost everything gloabally is priced in US$. They can fix the price there because that's the price they pay the factory (and the Yuan is pretty much pegged to the dollar, but lets not even go there now). Here they could price it lower, but if the £/$ ratio shifted and they had to up the price, everyone would complain.

Stuff costs more to distribute and sell in the EU because of law, language, geography etc, simply how it is = higher price (see EU regs / disposal costs / fuel /whatever).

So add 15-20% for the higher cost of sale here + another 20% for VAT and you're pretty much there. The price leaving the factory is such a minor part of the whole puzzle.

Simple rule... if you don't want to, don't pay it.

Me? I'll probably get one, realise after a month i've not touched it for 3 weeks and then pass it on to a niece / nephew who'll make use of it. 12 months later i'll be playing in 3d on the commute on my latest i/android/windows phone and smugly reassuring myself I was there at the start.