Nintendo has slashed the price on its 3DS handheld down to $169 following a disappointing quarter and a serious reduction in its year-end profit estimate. As we briefly mentioned in the financial news story, Nintendo recognizes that there haven't been many hits on 3DS, so the company is looking to get existing 3DS owners more interested in the system by giving away 20 free games.
The Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program will work as follows for anyone who owns a 3DS:
- Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Console games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.
- By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.
