Nintendo 3DS sales up 260 percent, future looking brighter

When you consider the success of the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS, it was honestly rather surprising that the Nintendo 3DS was, relative to Nintendo’s other products, a big flop.

It was a surprise to Nintendo to as well and, only four months after originally launching the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo was forced to drop down the price of the 3D handheld to $169.99, down from $249.99.

According to the latest NPD sales data, the price cut appears to be a success for Nintendo. Between August 12, the day of the price drop, and the end of August, over 185,000 Nintendo 3DS were moved at retailers in North America.

While those sales figures paints a more positive picture for Nintendo, it also happens to bring to light just how bad things were before the price cut. As Joystiq points out in their report, Nintendo stated that sales of the Nintendo 3DS were up by 260% over the same time period in July, meaning that the Nintendo 3DS only sold roughly 71,150 units for that month.

For comparison, here are the sales figures for the Nintendo DS for the month of July in past years, courtesy of Joystiq:

July 2010 – 226K
July 2009 – 355K
July 2008 – 401K
July 2007 – 267K

It’s not nearly as much of a success as the Nintendo DS was, but at least the future of the Nintendo 3DS isn’t looking so darned grim anymore.

Thanks, Joystiq