3DS beats DS' first-year sales in eight months

As far as hardware releases go, Nintendo’s 3DS got off to one of the more rocky starts in recent memory. An early reveal and a rushed release left consumers with an underwhelming list of launch titles earlier this year, not to mention a hefty asking price and health concerns from its 3D component. In spite of all this, Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that the console has eclipsed it’s predecessor’s first-year sales in just eight months.

“3DS has been having positive momentum since the digital content came onboard with the eShop, the launch of Ocarina of Time and obviously the price reduction,” he said in a recent interview with Time Magazine. “In sales through this past Saturday—8 months—[the 3DS] has outsold the full 12 months of the original DS. 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.”

An impressive feat, considering the success of the DS over the past few years. Speaking of which, though its successor has been on the market for nearly a year, Nintendo are looking to continue supporting the DS for the foreseeable future.

“As we introduce new platforms, we don’t forget about the legacy platforms, so DS is going to be very important over this holiday season and through 2012.

We’re going to continute releasing games for those platforms and licensees will also continue releasing games for those platforms for as long as consumers tell us it’s a viable option for them. We really look to the consumer to tell us when it’s a good time for us to fully transition to the new platform.”

Nevertheless, the 3DS is likely to continue surging with another month of holiday sales and the release of Mario Kart 7 in Europe and the US this week.

Time Magazine (via IndustryGamers) [Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime Talks Zelda, the Future of Handhelds and Wii’s Big Holiday Push]