Found out the other day that my parents are getting me a 3DS XL for Christmas. Now to find a way to drop hints about this bundle. Unless the pre-load makes for too big a hassle. Anyone have experience with these pre-loaded games? How much space does Mario Kart take up?

Also, OP, any idea when official bundle news will drop? If this thing goes on sale next week, it's got to be soon. Maybe waiting for the Cyber Monday dust to settle before pissing off everyone who picked up an XL over the weekend?

I imagine all 3DS boxes in the future are going to be super tiny and without the charging cradle and other things. If you've seen the SM3DL Red 3DS bundles at stores over the past week, you'd know they were about 1/4 the size.

Not only is it a cost-cutting measure, but they can ship a lot more units per box now. Maybe like two-three times as much.

So those BF bundles were effectively non-deals, no wonder there was such a lack of 3DS deals this BF. How many people actually use the charging cradle, I know if I was buying this I probably wouldn't. I think you can get a charging cradle for like $3 used at GS if you really want one, I think I have seen them there for that price.

For me to buy the price has to hit $99 or else I won't buy for the regular model, but I am still wondering which one to get, the XL is bigger and has a better battery but it also looks more pixelated, I won't be using the 3D feature so that is not a concern, the regular is cheaper and more pocketable which would be better for collecting streetpasses, not that I will get any around here anyways but I would probably still carry it 24/7 in the hopes of getting a couple.

Originally Posted by SaraAB So those BF bundles were effectively non-deals, no wonder there was such a lack of 3DS deals this BF. How many people actually use the charging cradle, I know if I was buying this I probably wouldn't. I think you can get a charging cradle for like $3 used at GS if you really want one, I think I have seen them there for that price.

I use my charging cradle all the time. It's really convenient and SUPER EFFECTIVE!

Originally Posted by easper Also, OP, any idea when official bundle news will drop? If this thing goes on sale next week, it's got to be soon. Maybe waiting for the Cyber Monday dust to settle before pissing off everyone who picked up an XL over the weekend?

It's suppose to go on sale this upcoming sunday. Based on the reveal of the red 3ds with super mario 3d land bundle. I would guess Wednesday or Thursday. If they don't reveal it I will post the full ad from a retailer that will be offering it on Sunday.

I wish we could get the charizard 3ds over here. I'd actually buy that one.

Originally Posted by htz It's suppose to go on sale this upcoming sunday. Based on the reveal of the red 3ds with super mario 3d land bundle. I would guess Wednesday or Thursday. If they don't reveal it I will post the full ad from a retailer that will be offering it on Sunday.

Thanks!

I've already picked up Mario 3D Land and Ocarina in anticipation. MK7 would complete my personal trifecta of must-play games.

I'm still waiting for the 3DS XL with the inevitable 2nd analog stick. Bet it's going to be Nintendo's biggest announcement at next year's E3.

Originally Posted by soonersfan60 I'm assuming this is a pre-load also... I'd much prefer a cart.

See, for a game like this I'm the opposite... I'd much rather have the digital version.

Mario Kart is the kind of game I want to have with me all the time. I almost never carry any extra cards beyond whatever single player game I'm playing that I leave in the system, I usually just shove it in my pocket and go. I'd gladly trade my physical copy for a digital version if they were codes and not pre-loaded.

I support the color argument though. I was fully expecting to by a 3DS XL this year, but instead ended up unexpectedly buying a white Vita on the Amazon bundle because it was an acceptable color and a great price.

Solid "black" color please, Nintendo.

Originally Posted by ZincAlloy I'm still waiting for the 3DS XL with the inevitable 2nd analog stick. Bet it's going to be Nintendo's biggest announcement at next year's E3.

Why won't people give this up? It won't happen. Period.

Originally Posted by gokuofheaven Still waiting for a different color. Anything but the Blue & Red !

Im waiting for black or silver. The red and blue look too "toyish"

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Originally Posted by elessar123 Why won't people give this up? It won't happen. Period.

and personally I think it shouldn't. The only reason to add a second analogue stick is to make games work for southpaws but noone cares about us. I think the color blind get more attention than us.

Nice deals. Kinda wish it was a cart instead of a digital version myself but waiting like always pays off.

Originally Posted by htz The 3DS XL Blue with Mario Kart 7 bundle will be on sale next week. Edit: The bundle will be $199.99 The regular 3ds will be getting an official price drop to $139.99 about 2 weeks from now.

Would be awesome if there are still the Flame Red/Mario bundles left and those drop in price as well.

Originally Posted by soonersfan60 Can't believe we aren't getting a new design or color... but at least Nintendo should have made the bundle with the RED unit to mirror the original DS Red Hot Red bundle. I'm assuming this is a pre-load also... I'd much prefer a cart.

Nintendo prefers being able to save the cost of the ROM when it costs so little to pre-load it on the bundled SD card. They can even include a higher capacity SD card to keep the base spec intact while including the game. (3DS games are currently 2 GB at most, though most are far smaller.) The 3DSXL comes with a 4 GB card. Expect that to grow to 8 GB to make room for bundled sweeteners rather than carts.

Mask ROM production is increasingly becoming a bad option for game system makers. Sony has already abandoned it on the Vita. All Vita carts are generic flash memory devices internally. This makes things a LOT simpler in manufacturing now that flash has dropped below mask ROM in cost. It becomes much more like making optical discs where the item being written can be changed on short notice and there is no penalty for small production runs. Mask ROM favored large production runs because there was a substantial cost and time involved in changing to a different game being produced. This is why some games in the cartridge days would start off hard to find and never get better regardless of market demand. If the publisher didn't have enough capital to risk it just couldn't afford to commit to making more carts when demand might dry up before they were ready to ship. With flash carts nothing is final until the label goes on.

Originally Posted by htz I don't want to reveal my source but you can get the regular 3ds next week at target for $129.99 by the way. This msrp drop won't happen till 2 weeks from now.

holy shit, awesome deal right there if that's true! but as mentioned before, if that included the mario game that would be amazing, or hope there are good prices other than $40 to pick up mario land or paper mario:sticker star. I really want one, just sometimes can't justify another console without an awesome deal. I could see people doing return rebuys from black friday if they're gifts and still in an unopened state.

Hopefully this happens during Walmart associate appreciation (20% off 1 transaction).

I just noticed the Flame Red 3DS isn't listed on Nintendo's site anymore.

That sucks, it's my favorite color of the hardware and if something were to happen to mine and I had no way to replace it that would suck.

Originally Posted by anotherpoorgamer Might have to return my Target 3DS XL that I got for $175 plus tax. Saving $25 during Black Friday, might not have been worth it.

It definitely was not a BF worthy deal. People were getting it for that much on launch day after gift card/future game credit offers from k-mart.

Mario kart 7 still goes for $35-40 easy so this is a decent deal bundle if it sells for $200.

PS I would love to get mk7 for $20-25 if it goes on sale somewhere today.

Still waiting on a nice color and price drop on a 3DS XL. The blue looks okay, but I would have liked it a bit darker. Don't really care for Mario Kart 7, either.