3DS: 900,000 units for launch, 5m in year one

Nintendo will ship 900,000 units into Europe during the first three weeks of the 3DS launch, MCV understands.

It will then look for sales of around 4.5-5 million during year one. Nintendo itself has offered no comment or guidance on ship-in or sales figures.

The new format is, however, the talk of the industry after this week’s Amsterdam preview event, with big name publishers and retailers all planning plenty of activity around the platform. It was inevitable that initial stock volumes and longer term installed base targets would be part of their discussions – and that some ball park figures would start to leak out.

The conclusive consensus reaching MCV via a number of well connected parties is that there will be a first wave of 900,000 units arriving in Europe during a three week launch period, and a year one target of 5m or just under.

The numbers compare favourably to the launch of the original DS, which took over three months to hit one million European sales back in 2005, and was pegged at 3.8m after 10 months.