Japanese Hardware Chart: 3DS Sales Plummet by 70%

Has Japan gone mad? The country’s Hardware Chart numbers are in (courtesy Media Create, week ending 7th August 2011) and Nintendo’s 3DS has taken a serious pounding from consumer apathy. The device has plunged from a lacklustre 16,000 units to a shockingly paltry 4,000 units in the space of seven days.

According to Media Create, there’s a perfectly good reason for the 70% plummet in sales, and it has everything to do with Nintendo’s incoming price cut for the handheld. The new price of the 3DS was announced and put into effect yesterday, which means that there should be a significant bounce back next week.

Sales were down across the board over last week however, with the PSP 3000 model about the only platform standing firm on relatively healthy sales. The DS Lite appears to be on its last legs with 102 units sold, and the PSP Go has finally reached its apparent sales target of 0 units this week. Zip. Zilch. Zero. It’s the only reason why Sony’s allowed it to be in the charts for so long. Can it go now?

(Last week's sales numbers in parentheses)

Hardware Chart - Home Console
PS3: 18,338 (20,704)
Wii: 17,004 (18,232)
360: 1,406 (1,616)
PS2: 1,529 (1,594)

Hardware Chart - Handheld
PSP: 35,619 (36,659)
DSi LL: 4,176 (5,267)
3DS: 4,132 (16,415)
DSi: 3,900 (4,625)
DS Lite: 102 (138)
PSP Go: 0 (7)