Is a Price Drop the Great Equilizer Between the 3DS and PSV?

THESEMOTHERF***ERSANDTHISGODDAMNPRICEDROPICAN'TF***IN'BELIEVEIT WHATTHEF***ISTHIS GARBAGEYOUGOTTABESH***INGME

OK, OK. I'm not really that upset. I know I haven't written a Revolutionary Rant in quite sometime, and in fact, I was about to this morning before more information about the Nintendo 3DS price-drop came to light. But let's examine the facts, about the inevitability of Nintendo's price-cut, and who's currently got the best shot at dominance in the handheld market.

The NIntendo 3DS was announced at a press conference where an incredible amount of core gaming content was revealed. Nintendo's E3 2010 was extremely well received. E3 2011 was an attempt at repeating that euphoria. Mario-Mario-Mario, ZELDA, 64 Bit NOSTALGIA everyone! Seriously, if it weren't for my love of the Nintendo 64, I wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

Sony's conference was in a completely different league though. New games, exclusivity! Tretton continued to march more and more software on stage. When the hell was the Vita showing up? When the hell were they going to call it the Vita officially?

HEY! Ken Levine pulled one out of his pocket! He stole Kaz's move!

Nothing, absolutely nothing else at E3 2011 matched the revelation that the PlayStation Vita was going to launch at a price that matched the Nintendo 3DS. When $249.99 appeared on screen behind the suits as Sony, the audience gasped and immediately launched into applause... or maybe it was just the fanboys I was sitting next to.

Nevertheless, I should have known at that moment that the Nintendo 3DS would see a price-drop before the Holiday shopping season. Yet again, the early adopters would be screwed out of hard earned cash. Let me be clear: I've been here before. When the iPhone launched on June 29th, 2007, I was in line in San Jose, CA. I was literally in Apple's backyard.

As a fun aside, some neat things happened in that line: Steve Wozniak was sitting up front and next to me in line was an Apple spy who happened to have a field-test iPhone in his bag the entire time.

So there I was, paying $600 for a License to Cool. Seriously, I was going to a party the next day. After lusting for the device for months, the price tag was worth it to me. Little did I know, 2 months later Apple would drop the price by $200. Was I upset? YES, GODDAMIT! $600 was a lot to me, and frankly, the magic of being a total-douchey-show-off-who- everyone-happens-to-hate-at-parties wears off in about a month's time.

I learned my lesson. I enjoyed paying the "special" tax for my fancy device because it taught me a lesson about money... about gadgets... about life. When the Nintendo 3DS debuted in March of this year, I wanted one, but I managed to hold off, because I remembered what it was like to feel like an asshole... a cool one, but an asshole nonetheless.

Goddam you Nintendo for making me an early adopter all over again. But hey, I get that you want people to question whether they should get a Nintendo 3DS or a PlayStation Vita this fall and I've come up with the answer to that question....