Nintendo Drops Price for the DSi XL and the DSi on September 12

Nintendo has announced that it is dropping the recommended sales price for both the Nintendo DSi XL and the DSi handhelds in North America, starting with September 12, in an effort to make the hardware more interesting to gamers as the company is getting ready to begin a marketing push for the more advanced and three dimensional capable 3DS, which should arrive in the spring of 2011.

The DSi XL version, which has the biggest screen of the line and two cameras, one of them facing the player, will retail for 169.99 dollars.

The DSi will sell for 149.99 dollars and the price of the older DS Lite console will remain unchaged at 129.99.

Cammie Dunaway, who is a vice president in charge of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America, stated, “We know shoppers want to get the maximum value out of every dollar they spend. Our new Nintendo DSi prices make it easier than ever for consumers to access the tremendous variety of games, applications and social tools on the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL systems.”

Nintendo says that there are more than 42.3 million DS handhelds in North America, allowing gamers to play no less than 1,300 titles that can be bought at retail stores and about 200 more that can be downloaded.

Nintendo will probably see a significant boost in sales of its handheld family after the price drop, showing up on the NPD Group numbers for September.

The company needs to keep selling the DSi and the XL version even if some gamers might be tempted to wait out and pick up the Nintendo 3DS, which enables three dimensional gaming without the use of specialized glasses.

The 3DS is expected to launch with an initial price tag of about 250 dollars and will be launched during the fall in Japan and a few months later in North America and in Europe.