14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon.co.uk, one of the most important sources for online retailing, has announced that the Nintendo 3DS handheld has managed to become the most pre-ordered gaming console of all time on the site, edging out the PlayStation 3, which had been the top console since March 2007.
At the moment, the Nintendo 3DS has about 20 percent more pre-orders than the PlayStation 3 and a whooping 56% more than the second best Nintendo product, the Wii home console.
Chris Poad, who is the director of video games at Amazon.co.uk Ltd, has stated, “It’s unusual for a handheld console to attract this amount of excitement in the run up to launch, such high levels of interest are normally reserved for the play-at-home hardware like the ground-breaking Nintendo Wii and last year’s Microsoft Kinect.”
He added, “Nintendo 3DS is launching at a time when interest in all things 3D is incredibly high and with the promise of real 3D graphics without glasses, it’s a real breakthrough in handheld video game entertainment.”
The 3DS has managed to also be more interesting to the gaming public than the Microsoft-made Kinect and the Sony created PlayStation Move, the motion-tracking systems that were released in the second half of 2010.
The United Kingdom and the rest of Europe will get access to the Nintendo 3DS on March 25 and the price will be equivalent to about 187 British Pounds.
The unique selling point for the new Nintendo handheld is its ability to deliver true three-dimensional gaming experience without the player having to resort to the use of glasses, as they must do on the PC or on gaming consoles.
The Nintendo 3DS has already been launched in Japan and has managed to sell close to 400,000 units in the launch weekend, better than what the publisher had initially expected.