{"id":12806,"date":"2015-03-12T22:27:51","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T05:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/?post_type=news&#038;p=12806"},"modified":"2018-06-18T16:31:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T16:31:45","slug":"3ds-sales-leads-february-us-hardware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/3ds-sales-leads-february-us-hardware\/","title":{"rendered":"3DS Sales Leads February NPD U.S. Figures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-12808 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/nintendo-3ds-xl-S.jpg\" alt=\"nintendo-3ds-xl-S\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" \/>MARCH 12, 2015 \u2022 The release of the February NPD numbers had each of the\u00a0three big video game hardware makers crowing about results. Microsoft Corp. noted February Xbox One sales were up 84% over January. Meanwhile, Sony Computer Ent. America claimed the PlayStation 4 was number one in both hardware and software sales for the month. Presumably the SCEA statement was not including portable systems as Nintendo of America&#8217;s 3DS handheld family topped U.S. hardware sales in February thanks to the launch of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/?companies=the-new-3ds-xl\">new 3DS XL system<\/a> on February 13.\u00a0 The launch helped drive not only 3DS sales of hardware, but also its premier launch titles, The Legend of Zelda: Majora\u2019s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.\u00a0 The latest in the Zelda franchise sold through 500,000 retail and digital units while Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate moved more than 340,000 combined units. Total 3DS hardware unit sales for February in U.S. were 395,000 units, and Nintendo says the majority sold were new 3DS XLs. The Legend of Zelda: Majora\u2019s Mask 3D was the top-selling title for the month, and Capcom USA, Inc. reports that Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is its fastest-selling 3DS title. Unfortunately, the Wii U continues to struggle.\u00a0 While carefully avoiding disclosing hardware sales for the Wii U, Nintendo did say U.S. consumers have purchased 20% more units of the console during January and February than in the same months in 2014. Unfortunately sales in those months were pathetic so a 20% increase is not much to brag about.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_11627\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/my-account\/\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11627\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11627 \" src=\"http:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/01-Burst-Black-and-Blue.jpg\" alt=\"CLICK BRIEF ICON to register to get our latest Complimentary Brief\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-11627\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CLICK BRIEF ICON to register to get our latest Complimentary Brief<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Impact: The game market has five major active dedicated game systems, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 which are on their way down, and the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 which are on their way up.\u00a0 Now into that mix we need to add the 3DS, which four years after launch could see a resurgence with the 3DS XL. This is actually the second version of the 3DS XL.\u00a0 The first version was quietly introduced to the market in August 2012. That system suffered from a major lack of promotion on Nintendo\u2019s part. In contrast the new 3DS XL benefited from an actual marketing push and solid launch titles to take some by surprise. The Monster Hunter franchise has been a huge success for Capcom in Japan where it is seen as a hardware driver.\u00a0 It is not well known in the U.S. but that could change.<\/span> <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/wp\/product\/worldwide-video-game-market-forecasts\/\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">DFC Intelligence is releasing its new forecasts next month<\/span><\/a><\/span> <span style=\"color: #000080;\">and the one platform that is likely to see the biggest change is the 3DS. However, this is not likely to be a major change that will bring Nintendo back to its portable heyday, but instead a slight adjustment. Overall the game console business remains in transition with the new Sony and Microsoft systems replacing sales of the older systems, while in the portable segment, Nintendo has slowed what was looking to be a steeper decline.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MARCH 12, 2015 \u2022 The release of the February NPD numbers had each of the\u00a0three big video game hardware makers crowing about results. Microsoft Corp. noted February Xbox One sales were up 84% over January. Meanwhile, Sony Computer Ent. America claimed the PlayStation 4 was number one in both hardware and software sales for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[168,78,56],"tags":[389,6,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12806"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15981,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12806\/revisions\/15981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}