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Nintendo just announced that effective August 21st, the Nintendo DS price will drop to $129.99, almost half of the current price of the PSP. The $20 savings comes just ahead of the August 22nd U.S. release of the Japanese smash-hit, Nintendogs. With the slipping console market share, Nintendo has been placing much emphasis on the handheld markets. This price drop on the still very new Nintendo DS should help Nintendo to further gobble up market share in the handheld arena. Dropping the system price should also help sales of Nintendogs, which has already sold 700k units in Japan.

The full press release is below:

Nintendo DS A Steal At $129.99; Nintendogs Barks Up A Storm

U.S. Fans Brace for Japan's Smash-Hit Puppy Simulation

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 16, 2005 – Nintendo is announcing new pricing for the Nintendo DS^TM of $129.99 MSRP, effective Aug. 21, in advance of the arrival of a critically acclaimed title for the dual-screened, hand-held video game system. The $20 price drop comes just ahead of the Aug. 22 U.S. launch of Nintendogs^TM, which has become a cultural phenomenon and a sales leader in Japan because of its innovative appeal.

"The new price and the arrival of a mega hit like Nintendogs give Nintendo DS a one-two punch that will thrill consumers," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Consumers know Nintendo offers the best in the hand-held video game industry, and this news should make them very happy."

Nintendo DS has outsold all other hand-held and console video game systems in Japan for four months straight. Nintendogs recently went on sale in Japan, sparking a nationwide craze, as owners began raising, training and falling in love with their lifelike puppies; more than 700,000 copies of Nintendogs have sold since its debut. Weekly Famitsu, Japan's leading video game magazine, gives Nintendogs an extraordinary overall perfect score of 40.

Nintendogs is a puppy simulator made exclusively for Nintendo DS that lets owners name, train and play with a realistic puppy. The pups respond to their owners' voices with the built-in microphone, and react to praise and positive reinforcement via the Nintendo DS' touch screen. The sophisticated artificial intelligence simulates a real dog in every way. Nintendogs players pick from 18 breeds, then owners feed their pups, buy them new toys and take them for walks as they bond.

In addition to Nintendogs, Nintendo DS has a strong lineup of games arriving before the end of the year. These include Advance Wars^®: Dual Strike on Aug. 22, Trace Memory^TM on Sept. 26, Metroid^® Prime Pinball on Oct. 24 and Mario & Luigi 2^TM in Q4. The new price for Nintendo DS also gives consumers another excuse to buy a Nintendo DS to be ready for the upcoming Nintendo^® Wi-Fi Connection, the wireless gaming service to launch later this year with a Mario Kart^® racing game and an Animal Crossing^®

The worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home and portable video game systems. Each year, hundreds of all-new titles for the best-selling Game Boy^® Advance SP, Nintendo DS^TM and Nintendo GameCube^TM systems extend Nintendo's vast game library and continue the tradition of delivering a rich, diverse mix of quality video games for players of all ages. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 2 billion video games and more than 353 million hardware units globally, creating enduring industry icons such as Mario^TM and Donkey Kong^® and launching popular culture franchise phenomena such as Metroid^®, Zelda^TM and Pokémon^®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere.

For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's Web site at www.nintendo.com.

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.: Comments on Nintendo drops DS price ahead of Nintendogs release

katie (October 12, 2005):i need to know how to delete all memory in nintendogs and start again because my brother took my game and got all the 3 dogs and used most of the memory