UPDATED: The £150 3DS XL – the race is on

The 3DS XL could yet be available to pre-order for just 149.99 before the machine arrives in the UK on July 28th.

GameStop is the current cheapest in the market with a pre-order price of just 167.97.

It is followed by ShopTo (179.84) and HMV which has today unveiled a price of 179.99 for the handheld.

However, a retail source has told MCV that Nintendo’s trade price for the hardware is just 146, meaning that retail could yet look to hit the magic 149.99 price point – or possibly less.

Attention now turns to supermarkets, who could well be prepared to take a hit on the device to gain key market share and drive store footfall.

UPDATE: A second retail source has contacted MCV to point out that a trade price of 146 would incur an additional VAT bill of around 21.50 per unit, meaning the actual trade price would be around 167.50.