The latest Enterbrain data from Japan points to Nintendo passing the 4 million sold mark for the 3DS by year's end. Sales picked up after the price drop earlier this year, but they're really moving now with the release of Monster Hunter 3G. About 300,000 3DS systems are sold each week now that Capcom's money maker is on the market. Last week's numbers broke all records for the system.
Nikkei says that we're sitting at 3.6 million right now. There's two weeks left to hit that mark.
Nintendo has had a rough year, so it's nice to hear that this is working out for them.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
7:00 PM on 12.22.2011 | 
Passing 4 million 3DS's suddenly has a very different meaning for her.
NINTENDO IS DOOOMED!!!!!!!
She looks crazy.
That's old news,
Everyone competent already knows that the 3DS launch was unremarkable.
Unless you're trying to get the trolls pretending to be Nintendo Fanboys to stop saying that the 3DS is the best thing ever,
Save your keystrokes for wittier comments.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL ANALyst
And yet it was better, than the PSVita's Japanese launch. Hmmm... funny how that turned out, isn't it? At the end of the day, its a marathon, not a sprint. But the 3DS is already millions ahead of the PSVita in Japan, and way more than that worldwide, so its up to Sony to catch up now!
Aside from Professor Layton, the Japanese 3DS launch line up was pretty bad. Don't think the PS Vita Jap launch is that better.( I much prefer the American one.)
At least you have Uncharted, Lords of Apocalypse, Katamari Damacy, and Hot Shots day one.
Dude, sorry to tell you this but; http://www.industrygamers.com/news/3ds-surpasses-ds-year-one-sales/
It surpassed the DS's first year in 8 months. Quite a few of those months were dry periods for games too, so it's pretty impressive.
(By extension, it also beat PSP)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humble_pie
@PEICanada7
Dude, just... no.
Las t I checked, they were nearly identical.(usa vs Japan vita lineup) And while I -personally- agree with pie's view on the lineup, it certainly isn't a bad launch.
Really? I better stop playing these bad ass games on my 3DS and Vita I will soon own, because I can play shitty flash games without buttons on my phone! Too bad my battery will die if I play a game for more than 20 minutes. I really wish I could make an important call with my phone (making calls being its sole purpose), but I wasted the battery playing the EPIC game Angry Birds. Yeah handheld market is dead.
Sorry, I meant to make that comment @l0cky
Luckily for them, they can all trade THAT POS in for a Vita shortly with launch games actually worth playing.
I really do feel sorry for the people stuck with that Professor Layton Trash..
;)
The launch was bad, things have obviously picked up since then; now it's getting close to a year since launch and with some big first-party titles available of course it is going to sell well. What is still an issue is third-party support, yes there is some but I would not say enough; definitely not enough for my liking. I am also interested to see what the Circle Pad Pro brings to the 3DS.
While it does seem like Excel is being sarcastic, especially considering the context, as I mentioned above the launch was quite some time ago.
3D... is bloody rubbish. Not everyone can see it, and some of those who can it gives massive headaches. I can see it, and without real consequence, but I still find the 3D on the 3DS to be total shite. I tried it in a shop, and neither was really any good. I had to keep my head in one place, and even then it was extremely slapdash.
Frankly, my only reason to buy the 3DS would be to play some of the updated games they have. But I still have Ocarina of Time on the N64, and I have no wish to pay (what is still) a stupiud amount of money for the privilege of playing it on the move. And in 2D at that - since I won't often bother with the 3D part - making it essentially pointless.
Perhaps I'm being too negative, but it's negativity that's tempered with sadness. Nintendo used to be the leading games company, and although they're still in the top three, they're arguably the lesser of the trio (except in the handheld market), and it seems that they're far too reliant on putting gimmicks into their products now. It's sad epitaph for a company that has had so many successes over the years. I know they've always been innovators in technology, but this is going too far now. The 3DS is the start of that.
But can I be really surprised at a company that copy-pasted their two major franchises for the past twenty years?
Actually I can play the 3d all the way up for hours on end. No headache. Whatsoever. I used to hate the idea of the 3ds. Then I bought it for Zelda. Changed my opinion right quick. Same thing with super Mario land 3d ... those two games alone justify my purchase. With resident evil and kid Icarus on the way ... i'm definitely happy with the 3ds and where its going.