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Nintendo 3DS passes 60 million sold

2DS price cut helps put company's latest generation of handhelds over a milestone sales mark

If dedicated handheld gaming is dead, nobody tell Nintendo. The company confirmed for IGN yesterday that the 3DS family of systems have combined to sell more than 60 million units.

The confirmation came after the NPD Group's monthly US retail sales figures release, which showed a spike in 3DS family sales after Nintendo lowered the price of the entry-level 2DS from $100 to $80.

The 3DS first launched in early 2011, and stumbled badly out of the gates. However, Nintendo turned its fortunes around with a drastic price cut just a handful of months after release and the releases of Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land later in the year.

While it still has plenty of time left on shelves, the 3DS is (at the moment) the lowest-selling handheld family in Nintendo history. It still has a long way to go before it catches the Game Boy Advance's 81.5 million sold. Its predecessor the DS is entirely out of reach, standing as the most successful line of Nintendo hardware ever with 154 million systems sold.

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Brendan Sinclair avatar

Brendan Sinclair

Managing Editor

Brendan joined GamesIndustry.biz in 2012. Based in Toronto, Ontario, he was previously senior news editor at GameSpot in the US.