Being an early adopter is sometimes like shooting yourself in the foot. Those who bought the 3DS early could be feeling the pinch right about… now.

Just a few months into the release of the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo has announced a price drop for it’s latest portable console from $249.99 to $169.99 (in Japan, that will be ¥15,000 from ¥25,000).

The reason for the price cut? Nintendo officials says that it’s meant to speed up the spread of the 3DS as the year end rush approaches– and with good reason. To date, Nintendo has only sold 0.71 million 3DS units from it’s launch date in March up to June 30, 2011 with 4.53 million 3DS software titles sold. In comparison, the aging DS lite sold 1.44 million units in the same period, along with 12.13 million pieces of DS software. Of course the 3DS’ disappointing software sales could be attributed to the lackluster launch game line-up.

Still, the new pricing will no doubt spark interest in the console once more. The new pricing will take effect in August 12 (August 11 for Japan).

For early adopters (who are no doubt sore about the announcement), Nintendo has a special offer to make it up to you.

All you need to do is connect to the Nintendo eShop (which means you need to update your 3DS to the latest firmware available) at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11 to be automatically included in the the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. What’s in it for you? Free 3DS games of course 🙂

Here’s the complete details from Nintendo:

Starting Sept. 1, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general 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. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.
By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include 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 currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

source Andriasang, Nintendo, Free DSI games