Nintendo Explains Why There Weren't Any 3DS Shortages

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has just revealed how the company managed to sell almost 400,000 units of its new 3DS handheld while avoiding shortages or sellouts in North America.

The sales data for the gaming industry during the month of March were posted by the NPD Group at the end of last week, showing that even if it was on sale for almost a week, the Nintendo 3DS portable managed to steal the show by selling a little under 400,000 units.

While this demand isn't really a surprise, considering the array of features brought forth by the device or the marketing Nintendo pushed with it, plenty of people were pleasantly surprised that the company managed to avoid any shortages.

According to Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime, the company learned from the troubled launch of the Wii and made sure that there were plenty of 3DS units to go around in order to make sure people were able to buy the new device.

"I would characterize it as a launch where we learned significant lessons from the launch of Wii and we made sure to have not only ample supply in the marketplace, but we staged supply so it would not sell out. We had product going direct to store and we also had product in retailers' (distribution centers), so they could easily replenish when they had stores running low on inventory."

He went on to emphasize the role of this strategy and just how popular the 3DS is, managing to sell a huge amount of units in just a small amount of time.

"That strategy is why you didn't see massive sell-outs on Nintendo 3DS. Obviously, a sell-through of 400,000 units in one week is exceptional. And the fact that we achieved that without people being worried about massive stockouts and shortages just underscored how we properly executed our supply chain."

After the launch of the 3DS, Nintendo is staying busy, as it has already operated a price cut for the Wii home console, with a black bundle for the device now priced at just $169.

At the same time, the company is rumored to be preparing the announcement of a Wii 2, which will sport a wide array of new features over the current console.