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• Iwata: 3DS likely won't sell below production cost

  

  When we were ripped from the E3 3DS demo units by heartless Nintendo reps, our minds raced to calculate precisely how much we'd be willing to pay to take one home with us. The answer was ... unnerving, to say the least. While we still don't have an official price, we've got a slightly better idea courtesy of a recent VentureBeat interview with Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata.

  He says that the handheld will, unsurprisingly, cost more to produce than a DS does today and that it won't be sold below production cost. We don't know the current DS Lite production price, so determining a minimum price from that quote is tricky. But here's a little perspective: The original DS cost $150 at launch, the DS Lite cost $130, a price point it's still doing crazy numbers at four years later. Our gut's saying at least $200 for the 3DS, but we'd be thrilled to be proven wrong ... provided we're overestimating.

  Also of interest in the VentureBeat piece: Iwata says that the 3D tech in the system has been prototyped on the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance. Just imagine! There's an alternate reality where the Wii has six dimensions duct-taped together.