Nintendo Selling 3DS Hardware at a Loss

Today’s massive 3DS price cut that makes the hardware cheaper than the DSi XL at retail will allegedly cost Nintendo heavily, as Bloomberg Japan reports that for every 3DS unit that Nintendo sells, it will incur a loss. This means that Nintendo will be loss leading- selling its hardware at a loss- for the first time ever in its history.

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata justified this by saying that such major moves were necessary in order to improve fiscal performance next year and beyond.

In case you missed out, Nintendo slashed the slow selling 3DS’s prices worldwide today, from  ¥25,000 to ¥15,000 in Japan, $249 to $169 in Japan, and by 33% in Europe.