How Is The 3DS Selling?

Nintendo's new 3DS handheld suffered/enjoyed nationwide shortages when it launched in Japan earlier this year. Has its U.S. debut been equally impressive? If you went to your local store right now, could you pick one up without a reservation? Today Game Informer called stores across the nation to find out, and the results were surprising.

To see what the demand has been for the 3DS (which launched just yesterday in the United States), Game Informer called 25 stores located in 25 states across the nation. Although our experiment was still completely anecdotal, we tried to keep things fair as possible. We called an even number of stores from five different retailers: Best Buy, GameStop, Kmart, Target, and Wal-mart. We also spread out our calls between stores in densely populated areas and those smaller towns.

Although our results were far from scientific, we were able to track down units in stores from all five retailers. Only three of the 25 stores we talked to were completely sold out, and the majority of the stores had around 5-10 units still available to those who didn't pre-order. A few stores had 20 or more units for purchase. Almost across the board, most stores had more of the blue units available than the black units.

The websites for all five stores showed that units in stock for buying online, and those sites with store locators were able to find retail locations with the new handheld in every state.

So what's our unscientific conclusion? If you're looking to buy a 3DS, chances are you'll be able to find one today.

The industry often views launch shortages as a sign of success ("Our system was sold out in the first hour it went on sale!"), but it's worth noting that stores having the 3DS in stock isn't really a failure for Nintendo -- all it suggests is that Nintendo has supplied enough of the units to meet demand. Based on our little survey, it appears Nintendo has succeeded in estimating how many handhelds it needed to ship, leaving a few units available in each location for walk-in sales.

That said, seeing handhelds sitting on the shelf the day after launch may still be a little disheartening for Nintendo, but without major franchise offerings like Mario or Zelda available at launch, it may very well be that gamers are waiting for a must-have game before they ditch their old DS.

Have you had trouble finding a 3DS in your location? Share your experience in the comments section below!