Late last week, Cheap Ass Gamer reported a rumor that Walmart was planning to beat other retailers to the punch by selling the Nintendo 3DS at its new low price of $169.99 beginning today, August 9th, a full three days ahead of the official price drop date of August 12th. Looks like CheapyD delivered again!
VGBlogger friend and former owner, Zach Lark, sent me a message this morning informing me that he was in fact able to buy the 3DS at its reduced price at the local Walmart in the Lansing, Michigan area. Even the checkout lady in the electronics department was surprised by the early drop when she checked the system, Zach tells me.
Why is this a big deal? Because Nintendo announced an Ambassador Program to reward early adopters who paid the original $250 price tag with 20 free eShop game downloads by logging online with their 3DS by 11:59 p.m. EST on Aug. 11th. With Walmart jumping the gun like this, Wally World shoppers have three days to buy the 3DS for $170 AND get the 20 free games. Lucky bastards!
So get out there and check your local Walmart store (the price is still $250 online) before this opportunity passes!
Matt Litten is the full-time editor and owner of VGBlogger.com. He is responsible for maintaining the day to day operation of the site, editing all staff content before it is published, and contributing regular news, reviews, previews and other articles.
Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
This is true. While it is possible that different Walmarts have different policies on this, I can confirm that the Walmart in Chelmsford, MA did drop the prices early.
I can also confirm that they now only have one black 3DS on display and have no blue ones.
I’m sure there are certain stores that probably didn’t do the early drop, but so far it sounds like a nationwide deal. Reports also started to come out yesterday that Target jumped the gun as well, before Walmart ate up all the sales.