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Reports are coming in that the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata has cut his salary in half in light of posting a net loss of $324 million yesterday. This, coupled with the Nintendo 3DS dropping in price from $249.99 to $169.99, indicates Nintendo seems to be buckling down for some rocky times ahead. Poor sales of the 3DS are most likely the major culprit here. Nintendo, for what it’s worth, is trying to right their wrongs. To quell a potential uproar by early adopters, they have created what they’re calling the Ambassador Program.  With this program, anyone who bought the system before the price drop receives ten free Virtual Console games on September 1st, with another ten promised by the end of the year. The only catch is that you have to navigate their eShop to get them.

The Nintendo 3DS has simply not lived up to the hype. The new handheld was outsold by the aging DS, which sold $1.44 million and the Wii, which managed to move $1.56 million units this since June when the 3DS launched. Nintendo is hoping that the price drop will increase sales and maintain them until they can bring some of their triple A titles like Super Mario 3D and Mario Kart 3DS to the device (or any other game with the name Mario in the title for that matter).
 
With the mixed message received at E3 about the Wii U, and the shaky sales of the 3DS thus far, Nintendo may be in bigger trouble than even they know. Although, Nintendo earned a lot of respect from me for the salary cuts and Ambassador Program.