3DS Surpasses Nintendo DS's First Year Sales in Eight Months, Say Nintendo

December 1, 2011

According to Nintendo, its 3DS hand-held has managed to beat the first year sales of its predecessor, the Nintendo DS - and it managed to do this in the first eight-months of release. Of course, the top executives at Nintendo forget to mention that the Nintendo DS did not have a price cut in that first year of sales, nor did it cause investors in Nintendo to demand that the company do a course correction and consider releasing software on other competing platforms like iOS.

"In sales through 8 months, the 3DS has outsold the full 12 months of the original DS," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told Time's Techland in a recent interview. "During that 12 months time, the original DS sold 2.37 million and we just surpassed that this past Saturday, so we’ve got real good momentum going into the holidays."

Regardless of how it got there, the news is good for the 3DS, which had a hard time exciting the Nintendo crowd at launch, and a price cut and more first-party software is certainly helping the platform finally get some much-need attention from fans.

And to be fair, the DS had a slow start too; it took 18 months before fans really got excited about the platform.

Source: Develop

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Comments

Re: 3DS Surpasses Nintendo DS's First Year Sales in Eight ...

Submitted by ecco6t9 on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 14:55.

Except news like this doesn't make global headlines asking Apple and Google to make stuff for the 3DS.

Re: 3DS Surpasses Nintendo DS's First Year Sales in Eight ...

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 03:52.

It's more the stiff competition that's holding it back.

Re: 3DS Surpasses Nintendo DS's First Year Sales in Eight ...

Submitted by jedidethfreak on Thu, 12/01/2011 - 18:29.

It's a bit wrong to say that the 3DS is doing better than the DS because of the price drop - the 3DS price dropped to the launch price of the DS, and the economy was better at the launch of the DS.

--- With the first link, the chain is forged.

Re: 3DS Surpasses Nintendo DS's First Year Sales in Eight ...

Submitted by RedMage on Thu, 12/01/2011 - 13:21.

The last sentence is key. That being said, it's inaccurate to say that the 3DS will do well because the DS took so long to do well. The DS was released in 2003 - a long effing time ago by video game standards. Mobile gaming, tablets, and social media gaming didn't even exist at the time, and the PSP was still finding its legs. The 3DS is in a vastly different market.

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MaskedPixelante: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-05-22-microsoft-wont-let-indies-self-publish-on-xbox-one And the hits just keep on coming.05/22/2013 - 9:20am

E. Zachary Knight: AE: You beat me to it. That's what I get for taking the night off.05/22/2013 - 7:40am

E. Zachary Knight: To continue the confused and convoluted messaging system present in EA, They are making Wii U games: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192753/EA_is_working_on_Wii_U_games_after_all.php05/22/2013 - 7:33am

Imautobot: I gotta admit, I seriously believed Microsoft was going to "Bring It" with this new console. But they failed, and I think that failure might be Epic.05/22/2013 - 7:27am

Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm

Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm

Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm

Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm

Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm

Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm

james_fudge: thnx05/21/2013 - 4:47pm

Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm

Zen: @PHX Awesome, I will hit those up after class tonight. Going back to college finally! :) My kids have had a blast telling ME to do my homework now lol.05/21/2013 - 4:19pm

PHX Corp: @Zen I sent you a friend request on both PSN and XBL, just a heads up05/21/2013 - 4:16pm

Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm

Zen: Is it just me or is call of duty hitting the "uncanny valley" with their nicely modeled faces and dead looking eyes? I found it distracting and seemed actually "less" real to me lol.05/21/2013 - 4:10pm

james_fudge: it sounds like if you have an HD reciever you'll be able to use it with a pass-through cable... not 100 percent sure yet05/21/2013 - 2:41pm

james_fudge: happening now http://majornelson.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-architecture-panel/05/21/2013 - 2:20pm

E. Zachary Knight: Some reading material for Microsoft on its used games blocks. That will hurt the console more than helping. http://ezknight.net/?page_id=20505/21/2013 - 2:18pm

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