NPD: Nintendo 3DS Hardware Sales Jump 260 Percent After Price Cut

As expected, Nintendo's 3DS portable console saw a significant increase in unit sales following its surprise price drop, to the tune of a 260 percent increase in a comparable time period. According to a statement from Nintendo received by Gamasutra following the NPD Group's August retail sales report, more than 235,000 3DS systems were sold during the month of August. Of those, about 185,000 units were sold during the 19 days following the price cut, representing a 260 percent increase from the same 19-day period in July. If accurate, that would mean that Nintendo sold around 71K 3DS units in the nineteen days leading up to its price drop announcement, which saw the console slashed from $249.99 to $169.99. The system is selling well in Japan too: as previously reported, the 54,744 units sold last week were more than any other console in the region. According to additional data provided by the company, 190,000 Wii systems were sold during August, along with 165,000 portable DS consoles. The company says that more than 50 million games have been sold across all Nintendo platforms so far this year. Life-to-date, Wii and DS game sales combined are over 540 million. The Competition As they traditionally do, both Microsoft and Sony provided additional commentary to Gamasutra following our receipt of the NPD's monthly report. According to Microsoft, 308,000 Xbox 360s were sold in the United States in August, making it the number one home console for the 14th time in the past 15 months. Total retail spend on the platform in August (combining hardware, software and accessories) was reported at $232 million, about 35 percent of the $669.9M total industry revenue reported by the NPD Group. According to Microsoft, this was the most spent on any console for the month. Sony, meanwhile, provided no additional data in its statement, other than to say that its PlayStation 3 hardware sales were "very strong" in the last two weeks of the month, following a $50 price reduction.