Nintendo Declares It Has Sold Over 5 Million 3DS Consoles in Japan, Overcoming Slow Start
On Monday, Nintendo declared that it has sold 5 million 3DS handheld game consoles in Japan; making the product the fastest-selling game platform device in the history of the country.
The Kyoto-based firm declared that the console reached on Sunday the landmark, so in under a year from its launch on the 26th of February 2011. It then went on saying that the number had its basis on estimates from data obtained directly from its domestic distributors.
In case you can’t recall what happened in its case, the 3DS was initially very well received by its targeted group – the gaming aficionados, only to fall badly in disgrace since no one else would touch it because of its high price; this forced the company to basically slash its price suddenly and quite drastically all over the world in less than six months after the official launch. Another reason for the initial fail registered by the console was the acute lack of gaming options which the company redressed by launching an aggressive sales push for new game titles.
Despite all these efforts, Nintendo managed just last month to slash its yearly sales target for the 3DS model by 13%, to 14 million. But the lower price has cut deeply into the company’s profit margins, and according to them, they managed to get back on track for a massive loss in the current fiscal year through March.
Nintendo declared the 3DS had reached the five-million mark even faster than its predecessors. As for the smash-hit DS, it took it 56 weeks to sell five million units, while in the case of the earlier Game Boy Advance the company waited for 58 weeks before seeing the same figures.
In Japan, the 3DS is the direct competitor of the Sony’s Playstation Vita handheld. The company is also getting ready for the big launch of its next-gen Wii U home console for this year; it is rumored that it will be out just in time for the holiday season in Europe, Japan and the U.S.
