3DS finally reaches a million sales in Japan

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jun 13th 2011 2:00PM

The Nintendo 3DS has reached the million sales mark in Japan after 13 weeks on the market. Comparatively, Andriasang points out that the DS hit that mark in four weeks, while the DS Lite and DSi took about eight weeks.

Nintendo head Satoru Iwata previously stated that the handheld wasn't performing as expected and the company was planning a push for summer. The company officially announced that it had sold 3.61 million 3DS units globally at the end of its fiscal year in March.

Source: Andriasang

Tags: 3DS, Japan, sales

Reader Comments (86)

I guess that's not very good.

@Nofriendo the thing people don't see is that at most of the active gamers in Japan already have one kind of DS variation. Plus, 3DS didn't have strong launch line ups, thus this shouldn't be a surprising news.

in the words of the great George Jefferson "1 million people, thats 500,000 eyes"

@Trilancer

1,000,000 x 2 =/= 500,000

@Mr Bundy

thats the most failingest fail in the history of fail.

@jph89

yes, i dont get it, maybe an insider in your country ? please explain.

@jph89

It actually isn't.
One person has 2 eyes.
So p=2e.

So therefore 1,000,000p = 2,000,000e
1 Million people means 2 million eyes.

@Mr Bundy

I guess referencing 80s sit-coms like the Jeffersons is taboo....Mr.Al Bundy

@Trilancer

but why did you get downvoted then? I didn't vote.

(lol, i didn't know about the sit-com... i'm from germany..)

@Mr Bundy

no worries, racists hate the Jeffersons. They want them to be mov'in on down.

give us da games, we give you da buys

@shabby329 Agreed. There's not anything too impressive that make me want to buy one. However, seeing that my DSi has died a tragic death, I'll get one nonetheless. I wonder if I have to buy the same DSiWare games over to the 3DS though.

@shabby329

True logic right here, Nintendo.

@shabby329
Amen to that...Like I have said Nintendo is not releasing any games that makes one want to go out and buy the 3DS.

@(Unverified)
What exactly is coming that you think will cause that reaction?

@mrantimatter New Mario, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Kart, Zelda, Kid Icarus, Resident Evil?

@gettempapa

Are they out yet? Didn't think so!

@gettempapa
So nothing new?
*yawn*

Obviously 3DS and Wii U will not be living up to the sales numbers of their respective older siblings. How can you top 2 of the 3 best selling systems of ALL TIME? It doesn't mean they won't be just as good (or even better) systems in their own right.

Taylor Swift did it, Kanye.

@Co

2 out of 3? What's the third? (Aren't you forgetting who's in 4th?)

@Co
the Ds i'll give you, but the wii isn't in the top 3. It was beat by both the ps1 and ps2 sales wise.

@mrantimatter Game Boy ...

@Co

Well the DS is the highest selling Handheld of all-time at about 147M, however the wii (86M) still has quite a ways to go to come even close to that or even break the top 2 highest selling home consoles of all time. The PS2 currently sits at about 143M and the PS1 totals are 102M.

@Blackbird37 I stand corrected, and thank you.

*The more you know!

Maybe it's because of the earthquake and they got better things to spend their money on than a crappy 3 ds

@Crzycracka
sure... guess its ok 4 u to buy vita's, im sure

@Crzycracka

Your post was alright until the" crappy 3D Ds" part.

They launched it too early. That's really all there it to it.

@Softserve

Makes sense to me.

But Nintendo oughta hold out for the Holiday season to see if there is serious inrerest. It's hard to tell a system's success when it launches in March, usually. Or in the case of Japan, February was their release, correct? I will say that those are pretty small numbers in the case of "February" and "Japan".

@Shadowbender I know dates matter, but I guess my reference was more kind of a combination of a few things...

- Lack of games in general
- Lack of a major, new killer app at launch
- The fact that people seem pretty pleased with their DSes still.

I really think they should have waited longer and had all of this addressed... Or at least at a time when the next major wave of games wasn't 6 months+ away.

Well that's too bad.

too expensive, not enough good games (yet)

@Jawmuncher

Please do your best to try not to give us any insight as to how you live, i.e. showing your face, your shirt, or your posters. Or your garbage.

It ruins any chance of anyone liking you for what you write.

@Enosoma

I think i'll be fine.

Massive global recession + console-priced handheld + lack of any "killer app", and dearth of compelling software overall = fiddling sales.

Really, the fact that the system has sold as well as it has is a testament to the power of the Nintendo brand and the faith people place in it.

@Kerdakai Hmmm... sounds logical, but this is the internet. Logic has no business here.

A $300 headache-inducing handheld with no good launch titles and worse battery life than the game gear isn't "performing as expected"? IMPOSSIBRU

@Marshillboy
dont put the 3d effect to the max... i usually leave it at 20%... et voilá!

@Marshillboy It is not $300 and where did you hear that it causes headaches?

@Marshillboy

Nice try 1%.

Too expensive, not enough original software, and without 3D, it's just another DS.

The Playstation Vita on the other hand looks more interesting. Powerful hardware with innovative software.

@dagamer34

Like Uncharted, Killzone, Resistance, Little Big Planet, Call of Duty... Super innovative.

Without more polygons, it's just another PSP.

@dagamer34

Agreed.

@butthurt fanboy playing the defensive by listing off intellectual property ...

It's not the IP that makes it innovative, as Nintendo has proven time and time again by innovating with well established IP.

@dagamer34

Well, the 3DS has very high-end hardware compared to the original DS, which was basically just a slightly upgraded GameBoy Advance. The 3DS is actually modern hardware. Just not a lot is known about it since Nintendo doesn't really talk tech specs.

@dagamer34
You're kidding, right? PS Vita is exactly 'more of the same but better graphics and we put in that second analogue stick you wanted' (and there's nothing wrong with that).

3DS on the other hand is totally different from DS: while DS was big on 2D touchscreen games, it seems like 3DS will receive a bunch of 3D analogue-control games... in other words... it'll be rather like PSP.

So in other words the omens might not be all that good but the risk is not that 3DS and its games are too similar to existing DS, the risk is that it's different from DS... and really rather similar to the less-successful PSP platform.

If people see it as a choice between basically a PSP with slightly better graphics (3DS) and a PSP with *much* better graphics (PSV), that's not looking so good for Nintendo.

Really though I think this is all a bit irrelevant until there are actual games for the thing.

@Epoque

Have a DS I haven't played in a year or so, so keep your assumptions to yourself.

PSV is just yet another hardware evolution, we'll see if it does anything more interesting than PSP. Doubt it.

@(Unverified)

Wow, touch screens and 2 analog sticks, that's a new one.

@DekuTree

If it ain't broke....

The most important thing PSP lacked was 'more' compelling games, there were some great games on PSP, just not as many as the DS and what made it worse was lack of integration with PS3, lack of two nubs making controlling annoying, lack of proper PSN integration, lack of multiplayer options, lack of friend tracking, lack of touch screen (which all devices use now), far too expensive, PSP games couldn't be played on PS3, there were no trophies, it tried to be great in all areas and did meh in all compared to other products.

Considering all those factors, PSP is the only handheld device to even get a fraction of what Nintendo gets in terms of handheld sales and that fraction is pretty damn significant.

Vita may not seem very original, but that's because to be honest, nobody wanted it to be, we just wanted Sony to change the things we wanted and make it cheaper, and that's just what they did, now all it needs is more games on it and we are good to go. My Vita is already bought :D

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3DS finally reaches a million sales in Japan

Reader Comments (86)

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:02PM Nofriendo said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 9:26PM junhotak said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:04PM Trilancer said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:50PM Mr Bundy said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 4:13PM jph89 said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 7:38PM Mr Bundy said

Posted: Jun 14th 2011 12:58AM Esposch said

Posted: Jun 14th 2011 1:53PM Trilancer said

Posted: Jun 14th 2011 2:07PM Mr Bundy said

Posted: Jun 14th 2011 3:32PM Trilancer said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:08PM shabby329 said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:13PM daraikenu said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:16PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:17PM Streeks1984 said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:54PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 3:27PM gettempapa said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 3:39PM Shockwave said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 11:53PM Ericss said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:08PM Co said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:33PM jsx said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:33PM sonicspike41 said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:37PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:41PM Epoque said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 3:16PM Blackbird37 said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 4:31PM Co said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:12PM Crzycracka said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:17PM palu said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:41PM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:13PM Softserve said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:22PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:51PM Softserve said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:15PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:15PM palu said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:19PM Enosoma said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:20PM Jawmuncher said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:20PM Kerdakai said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:54PM baddates77 said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:24PM Marshillboy said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:34PM palu said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 3:30PM gettempapa said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 3:39PM Nofriendo said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:36PM dagamer34 said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:49PM DekuTree said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:51PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Jun 13th 2011 2:59PM Epoque said

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