Huge drop in Japanese 3DS sales isn't slowed by free games

Following last Thursday's announcement that the 3DS's price will be reduced by a third, sales of the handheld have also dropped. Last week, Nintendo sold only 16,415 3DS systems in Japan, or about half of what it sold in the same market the week before (31,826).

In the same press release that announced the price cut, Nintendo offered 20 free downloadable games, all of which are re-releases from previous Nintendo systems, to anyone who owns or buys a 3DS and logs into the eShop before 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 11, the last day before the price drop goes into effect.

Sales appear likely to dip even lower this week, since the announcement came late last week, meaning some of the week%26rsquo;s purchases were made before anyone knew Nintendo would readjust its sales strategy.

The numbers from last week's Japanese console sales are as follows. Sales from the previous week are in parenthesis:

1. PSP: 36,659 (26,854)
2. PS3: 20,704 (23,343)
3. Wii: 18,232 (17,114)
4. 3DS: 16,415 (31,826)
5. DSi LL: 5,267 (5,258)
6. DSi: 4,625 (4,921)
7. X360: 1,616 (1,546)
8. PS2: 1,594 (1,475)
9. DS Lite: 138 (155)
10. PSP go: 7 (14)

Sales of the PSP go also fell by about half, from 14 units to seven, but nobody noticed.

Source: andriasang

Aug 4, 2011