Nintendo Bows Two 3DS Bundles for Thanksgiving
Nintendo of America is introducing two $199.99 limited edition 3DS bundles on Thanksgiving. One bundle will include a “flame red” 3DS system and the new Nintendo 3DS game Super Mario 3D Land, NOA said Monday. The other will include Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda -- Ocarina of Time 3D and a 25th anniversary limited-edition “cosmo black” 3DS system with a game-themed design and gold-colored embellishments.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The 3DS and Nintendo’s 2D DSi XL, as well as Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360 motion sensor, are among several videogame products being heavily promoted in pre-Black Friday retail ads. The 3DS costs $169.99 on its own after an $80 price cut in the summer (CED July 29 p6), and each game in NOA’s 3DS bundle costs $39.99, so each bundle offers a savings of about $10 over what the items would cost separately.
Target, however, is offering a better deal on the 3DS as part of a four-day, pre-Black Friday sale through Wednesday. It featured the system on the front page of its Sunday ad circular at only $145, which it said was “our lowest price ever.” But it said quantities were limited and there would be no rain checks.
Target also advertised a DSi XL bundle including the older handheld system and Nintendo’s game Mario vs. Donkey Kong at $169.99. The DSi XL normally sells for $169.99 on its own, so Target’s giving away the game, which it said has “a $29.99 value.” The same offer was advertised by Best Buy in its Sunday circular. Heavy promotions on the DSi XL were expected this holiday season because its price has been the same as the newer 3DS since the handheld 3D system’s price cut.
Super Mario 3D Land was listed as backordered at Bestbuy.com Monday, though the game was available at all eight Long Island and six Manhattan Best Buy stores that we checked on the site.
Best Buy offered the Kinect sensor bundled with Microsoft’s Kinect Adventures game at $99.99 Monday as part of an exclusive offer to the chain’s Reward Zone members. The sensor normally costs $149.99, while the game now costs about $19.99 on its own. Amazon featured Kinect products at heavily reduced prices Monday, including the sensor with the same game at $124.99. Xbox Chief Financial Officer Kevin McCarthy told a recent conference that Kinect had “broadened the audience” for Xbox 360 ownership since the motion sensor was released a year ago (CED Nov 14 p3). Microsoft was “delighted with what we're seeing” with Kinect, but he said the company needed to still “move beyond the early adopters,” to reach more families. Sub-$100 pricing is widely viewed as the way to reach more of the mass market.
Separately, Amazon said it added several more “doorbuster deals” to its Black Friday Deals Store, including a Nikon Coolpix camera at 50 percent off and up to 50 percent off select LeapFrog electronic toys. The Coolpix P7000 was offered at $249 -- $250 off what Amazon said it normally charged for the camera. Also added were a Samsung 46-inch 1080p LED-backlit LCD TV at $799.99 ($500 off its normal price), the Canon PowerShot SX230HS camera at $199 (savings of $150), a 160-GB PS3 bundle including the console and Sony Computer Entertainment’s Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and LittleBigPlanet 2 games at $199 (savings of $150), a Toshiba Satellite 14-inch laptop at $599.99 (savings of $150), a TomTom XXL 5-inch GPS device at $99.99 (savings of $99), and a Samsung BD-D5700 Blu-ray Disc player at $99.99 (savings of $80).