3DS for $169 plus 20 free games?

After recording our podcast tonight I got to looking for some more information on the 20 free games and what you had to do to get them. According to this letter from Nintendo all you have to do is sign onto their market once before 12:59 August 11, 2011. August 12th is the date when prices of the 3DS are scheduled to drop however Wal-Mart is rumored to drop the price August 9th. So if you want the 3DS at the cheaper price and the 20 free games you have between August 9th and the 11th to pick one up and sign onto the store.

Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program

To our loyal customers, we would like to offer you 20 downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop at no charge. These free games are available to Nintendo 3DS owners who connect* to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern/8:59 p.m. Pacific time on Aug. 11, 2011. You will be registered as a 3DS Ambassador.

Starting Sept. 1, Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Console games at no charge and before they are available to the public. These games, including Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and The Legend of Zelda, are slated to become paid downloadable games. but Ambassadors get them early for free. Later in the year, once the paid versions of the games are available in the Nintendo eShop, Ambassadors can download any of the remaining games or any of the updated versions at no cost.

By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games like Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

More details about this program will be announced in the future.

*Wireless broadband connection required to access the Nintendo eShop.

Nintendo

 

Sounds like a pretty good deal. Here's a link to the Wal-Mart story