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Analyst: 3DS Games Should Be $25 Tops
M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon says that Nintendo's huge price cut on the 3DS hardware isn't enough. The games have to come down from the standard $39.99 as well.
Speaking to Industry Gamers, Pidgeon says the system's future is all about attach rates (how many games are sold per system).
"Nintendo needs to change its business fundamentally," says Pidgeon. "With Wii and DS, Nintendo built large installed bases but failed to energize those bases. Selling in hardware is important, but Nintendo must increase attach rates and third party opportunity dramatically. Lower 3DS hardware prices only address part of the problem. It's more important to sell more software as packaged goods and paid digital downloads to each customer who buys a hardware unit. I would like to see Nintendo cut the retail price of packaged software to a range of $20 to $25 for the 3DS. DS software should be $20 or less."
As part of Nintendo's earlier dialogue with investors after the price cut announcement, CEO Satoru Iwata did sound open to the idea of software price cuts. Industry Gamers quotes him as saying he hopes “to discuss this subject with [developers] so that the price of software will become more affordable for the users to purchase it."
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