The Circle Pad Pro 3DS accessory will be released on February 7th, 2012 in the United States. It will cost $20 and is exclusive to GameStop (in-store or online) throughout America.
This news is much unlike in Europe, where the Circle Pad Pro is bundled with Resident Evil Revelations (which is shaping up to be a major killer-app for the 3DS in 2012); whereas the American release of the Circle Pad Pro has no-such bundle. Hopefully it will get a bundle though, as this is just ridiculous…
The Resident Evil: Revelations release date is January 7th in America and January 27th in Europe, btw. In Europe you can either buy the Circle Pad Resident Evil: Revelations bundle, or purchase the game or Circle Pad separately.
This news of GameStop-exclusivity for the Circle Pad Pro in America follows hot on the heels of Nintendo announcing that next year’s Wii-exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles RPG will also be available exclusively at GameStop in America as well. Apparently Nintendo and GameStop are great bedfellows.
Thankfully the Circle Pad Pro, which adds an extra analog stick on the right side (or Circle Pad) and Trigger button, will not be an expensive item to buy, at $20 bucks. But the fact that Nintendo is making it a GameStop-exclusive may mean that support for the device may be low following the initial burst of high-quality games that support it (see below). Lets hope it does sell well regardless, as having the ability to play games with two sticks will greatly enhance gameplay, and allow the 3DS to better compete with the upcoming PlayStation Vita, Sony’s next-gen portable.
In other recent news, it was confirmed that the Circle Pad Pro Battery Life is huge. It can run for 490 hours on ONE AAA (Triple A) battery. Impressive.
Titles that will support the Circle Pad Pro include:
– Resident Evil: Revelations
– Monster Hunter Tri 3G
– Dynasty Warriors VS
– Metal Gear Solid: Snake Hunter 3D
– Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
– Ace Combat 3D: Cross Rumble
and
– Monster Hunter 4
All of those are big titles for the 3DS, so maybe having such strong support will drive sales of the Circle Pad Pro. We’ll have to wait and see.
Here is the debut trailer for Monster Hunter 4, exclusively for 3DS.
Here is the most recent trailer for Resident Evil: Revelations, exclusively for 3DS.
Via 1UP