Nintendo: 4 Million 3DS Units Will Be Shipped by March 31

Nintendo, the maker of the Wii and DS gaming consoles, says that it plans to ship no less than 4 million units of the new handheld in the first three months the device is on the market, with the bulk of the number coming going to the internal Japanese market.

Speaking at the Nintendo World event the hardware and software maker is holding in Japan, Satoru Iwata, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the company, has said that 1.5 million units of the 3DS are set to arrive on the Japanese market before March 31, with another 2.5 million of them set to be sent all around the rest of the world.

The launch date for the 3DS in Japan is set for February 26, with the price of 25,000 Yen, which is about 300 United States dollars.

Those who plan to get it in Europe and in North America are set to find out the exact launch date and the price on February 19, when Nintendo is holding events at the same time in New York and in Amsterdam.

The high number of units that Nintendo is planning to ship does not guarantee that the new gaming console will be a success but it does indicate that the company is determined to now suffer the supply issues that have been evident when the Wii home console and the various versions of the DS were initially released.

The Nintendo 3DS could be a revolution in the gaming world, allowing players to experience full three dimensional games without requiring the use of any of the specialized glasses that power the same experience on home based platforms.

This would be one of the first times in the history of gaming when mobile devices have a clear advantage over the more powerful living room based consoles and over the PC.