Nintendo DS Price Cut; GB Micro Date; Zelda DelayedNintendo DS Price Cut; GB Micro Date; Zelda Delayed

Author: by David Jenkins, Simon Carless

Officials from Nintendo of America have announced that the price of the Nintendo DS handheld console is to be dropped by $20 to a new recommended retail price of $129.99, effective from August 21st. Although the Nintendo DS has been outselling the rival PSP by a significant factor for over four months now in Japan, the situation is reversed in North America. This may be in part because a number of games, such as Electroplankton, Brain Training and Nintendogs, have not been released outside of Japan, though some analysts question the ability of those DS titles to target Western audiences in the same way that titles such as Midnight Club 3 and Need For Speed Underground do for the PSP. However, this latest Nintendo price cut is timed to coincide with the launch of Nintendogs and Advance Wars: Dual Strike in the U.S. on August 22nd, and Nintendo will no doubt be hoping the combined marketing activity will see the console’s fortunes improve. Nintendo has also confirmed that its tiny Game Boy Micro, which sports a 2 inch backlit LCD screen and compatibility with Game Boy Advance cartridges, will release on September 19th in North America, though pricing for the handheld has not yet been officially revealed. Also today, in a press release from Nintendo of Europe, it was announced that GameCube title The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has been delayed into 2006 in all territories. The only reason given for the delay was that the development team wanted to “add some incredible new elements” to the game. Although Nintendo's official statement commented: "GameCube fans will have a variety of Nintendo games to choose from this Christmas, including Mario Smash Football, Battalion Wars, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness", it's clear that the lack of such a high profile title will affect Nintendo's hardware and software sell-through significantly this holiday season.