Amazon UK has revealed that the soon-to-be-released Nintendo 3DS has become its most pre-ordered console of all time. The online retailer has also slashed the price of the handheld to £187, down from £197.
As reported by Gamasutra, Amazon UK announced that customers have placed 20 percent more pre-orders on the Nintendo 3DS than the PlayStation 3 had in 2007, and 56 percent more than Wii – the last most pre-ordered Nintendo console on the website. Additionally, it has also beaten the pre-order numbers of every Nintendo DS model, with a reported 255 percent more pre-orders than DSi alone.
"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," said Amazon UK"s Director of Video Games, Chris Poad.
"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."
Amazon UK"s top five gaming hardware pre-orders:
- Nintendo 3DS – launching 25 March 2011
- PlayStation 3 – launched March 2007
- Nintendo Wii – launched December 2006
- Microsoft Kinect – launched November 2010
- PlayStation Move – launched September 2010
Nintendo 3DS was first unveiled at the company"s 2010 E3 press conference. The new handheld uses a process called autostereoscopy technology to produce 3D effects without the need for any special glasses. It is set to hit store shelves next Friday in Europe and on March 27 in North America.