Nintendo Aiming To Surpass DS Sales With 3DS

Though the DS is already one of the best-selling consoles of all time with more than 140 million units sold worldwide, Nintendo says it hopes to exceed those numbers with its recently launched 3DS. The company's president and CEO Satoru Iwata revealed that Nintendo has so far moved over 140 million units of the DS's previous models around the world since the console's debut in late 2004, and that more than 300 million people have played with the handheld. Still, the Kyoto-headquartered firm's boss said, "We'd like to increase this even further with the 3DS", according to an interview with Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun translated by Andriasang. The 3DS debuted in Japan last weekend and sold an impressive 371,326 units in just two days -- Famitsu previously recorded four-day sales of 441,485 units for the original DS and 67,653 for DS Lite, and two-day sales of 170,779 for DSi and 103,524 for DSi XL/LL. Level-5's latest release from its popular puzzle franchise, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle (published by Nintendo in the West), is the top-selling Japanese launch game for the Nintendo 3DS, selling 117,589 copies during its first two days of availability. Nintendo hopes to provide around 1.5 million 3DSes to Japanese retailers within a month of the new system's launch -- its initial shipment of 400,000 units sold out shortly after appearing on shelves. The portable is scheduled to release in North America on March 27 (priced at $250) and Europe on March 25. In the same interview, Iwata also commented on Sony's upcoming PSP successor, the NGP, and said that possible required monthly feeds to pay for 3G usage alone would decrease the system's potential customer base. Discussing his company's efforts to compete against Apple's iOS platform, he added, "We're at a period where it will be difficult to keep the value of our content if we are unable to offer experiences that can't be had on smartphones."