Major US games retailer GameStop.com has reduced the price of Nokia's N-Gage game deck to $199 only two weeks after the system launched.
This is time-limited offer which also includes free shipping for all N-Gage products.
The $100 price cut is one of the largest drops we’ve ever seen to the price of a console this early in its lifespan, and has prompted talk of an official drop by Nokia before Christmas – although there’s no evidence as yet to support this possibility, with the Finnish company continuing to be bullish about the success of the platform.
It’s not known how long GameStop plans to continue selling the device at this price point. Although the price does include a SIM card from AT&T or T-Mobile with 30 days of free service, this is a deal similar to the bundling of a Virgin SIM card with the full-price device in GAME stores in the UK, and the system has not been subsidised by the networks.
Meanwhile in Britain, trade magazine MCV has reported that Nokia has lashed out at market research firm Chart-Track, whose figures showed that the N-Gage has sold under 800 units at games retail outlets across the UK. A Nokia spokesman told the magazine that “we cannot give any credence to the N-Gage figures Chart-Track reports,” going on to claim that “it isn’t representative
