You guys are right. Ultimately, I made the decision to buy the 3DS. Nintendo did not hold a gun to my head. I am not unhappy with the system itself, rather I'm upset with the way Nintendo went about handling the decision to sell the 3DS overpriced, the subsequent price cut, and compensation package.
I paid $250 because I thought that's what the system was worth. Evidently it isn't.
I'm aware that the console didn't sell as expected, and so the company had to react by cutting the price. To announce such a huge price cut means they made a mistake of pricing it too high--in a way they got too greedy because they figured the console was going to sell like hotcakes so they priced it higher than normal and still expected a lot of sales. The fact that they were able to cut the price around 40% means there was absolutely no reason to have the original price point set that high to begin with. So, to me, their plan was to sell it overpriced, and if for some reason it doesn't sell, there would be room to fall back on and still hit profits. I am sure Nintendo had a contingency plan. I thought consoles weren't really supposed to generate revenue for companies; the real profits are coming from games / accessories. Maybe someone can come here and spit out some statistics about how much profit (or loss) the company gains or loses for each 3DS sold, before + after the price cut. It would be interesting to know that.
I don't think that the Ambassador Program is worthy compensation. I think most people would rather have funds placed in their Nintendo account, or some kind of gift card that can be used only for Nintendo products. I think I know WHY Nintendo won't do this, because they'd essentially -lose- the money instead of just routing the purchase compensation to their store which they could give away free items and not lose anything.
Yes, their sales are down, but only relatively. They are still making huge profits.
Nintendo's mistake was not releasing it originally at $170. I assume that the reasoning behind their price cut is because the more people who own a 3DS, the more profit they will receive from games and accessories.
They make it even worse by not letting the "late adopters" have access to the games. What's the point of this? To make early adopters feel special? Are most gamers that selfish? I'd rather everyone have access to the game that way the community for that game gets as busy as it can be.
...and wow..I'm not some industry analyzer here...I'm just a normal consumer. I don't claim to know any business techniques as facts...These are just my thoughts as a consumer.
This is how they go about offering compensation for the biggest, fastest price cut in Nintendo's history? I've bought enough VC games on my Wii already.