Nintendo made a big move to get a sales boost for its 3DS portable game console in August. Faced with slower than expected sales, Nintendo decided to cut the price of the $249 game console down a whopping $80 to just $169 beginning on August 12. This week Nintendo of America announced that, at least for now, the price cut seems to have worked out. In a press release this week, the company said that 185,000 units of the 3DS console were sold by Nintendo in the US from August 12 to the end of the month. Nintendo said that was a 260 percent jump in sales compared to the same time period in July 2011. Counting the sales in August before the price cut, the 3DS console sold 235,000 units in the US for that month.
Nintendo also said that it sold over 190,000 units of its main Wii console and more than 165,000 units of the various versions of the DS portable console during the month of August. So far in 2011, more than 50 million games have been sold for the various Nintendo console platforms. The company also said that for the lifetime of the Wii and DS consoles it has sold 540 million combined games.
In related news, VG247.com reports that Nintendo of America will release a new color for its larger DSi XL console. On September 18 the new console color, Metallic Rose (otherwise known as pink) will be made available in stores for $169.99.