Nintendo expects to move 5 million 3DSes in Japan by early 2014

Nintendo expects to sell 5 million 3DS units in its native Japan and 18 million worldwide in the 12 months to March 2014, as reported in Bloomberg. The company sold 5.5 million units in Japan in the previous fiscal year, so the forecast represents a modest decrease. Meanwhile, global 3DS unit sale projections are up from the 2012 fiscal year, when Nintendo forecast 13.95 million units sold. "There are more and more media reports suggesting that things aren't going very well for the dedicated gaming hardware business," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in a statement. "But that's not true, at least for the 3DS in Japan." Iwata added that the only other machine to top 5 million annual sales in Japan was the 3DS's predecessor, the DS.