Nintendo slashes prices on Game Boy Advance

DALLAS — Nintendo Co. has permanently slashed prices on its Game Boy Advance SP portable video game system as the company tries to entrench its No. 1 position in the handheld game market.

Beginning Wednesday, the flip-up, color screen Game Boy Advance SP retailed for $79, down $20 from its price since debuting in the United States in March 2003.

Similar price cuts were being announced in Japan and Canada, said Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing for Nintendo of America.

Kaplan said the cut should bring the SP further into the mainstream and was unrelated to the company’s impending Game Boy DS, or dual screen, which is expected in time for the holidays. No price has been set.

“This is just logical for us,” Kaplan said. “Everything we have done and will always continue to do will be to maintain a stronghold on this.”

Kaplan said the DS isn’t a replacement for the aging SP.