Although precise information about sales of the Nintendo 3DS video game console is currently unknown, the company itself claims that it managed to sell more 3DS devices on the first day than any other Nintendo portable game consoles ever.

"U.S. day-one sales numbers for Nintendo 3DS were the highest of any Nintendo hand-held system in our history. More details about U.S. sales numbers will be made public on April 14, when first-week U.S. sales figures will be tallied by the independent NPD Group," an official statement by Nintendo reads.

Nintendo made 3DS available in Europe on March 25, 2011, and released it in the U.S. on the 27th of March.

Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, said earlier this year that the company planned to sell 1.5 million of 3DS consoles in Japan in its first month (starting from February, 26) and ship 4 million of the new-generation portable game systems worldwide by the end of March. Of those four million about 1.5 million were assigned for Japan, therefore 2.5 million were left for both the E.U. and the U.S.

"Nintendo worked hard to get as much product as possible to retailers on day one to meet demand, and we will continue with these efforts moving forward," the statement continued.

Nintendo 3DS features a 3.53” autostereoscopic 3D top screen with 800x240 resolution (400 pixels for each eye) and a 3.02” bottom touch screen with 320x240 resolution. It has three 0.3MP cameras – one inner and two outer – to deliver the stereo-3D effect and take stereo-3D pictures. It includes a motion sensor, a gyro sensor, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n controller, a Slide Pad that allows 360-degree analog input and so on. The device also has a special slider that can increase, decrease or disable stereoscopic 3D (S3D) effect. The 3DS comes in form-factor that is similar to the predecessors and is fully compatible with Nintendo DS titles. The console uses DMP Pica 200 graphics processor. As announced previously, it will have a slot for SD cards as well as support cartridges for previous-gen DS systems. When playing stereoscopic 3D games specifically developed for 3DS, the console will last 3.5 to 5 hours depending on conditions. When playing DS or DSi games, which are naturally 2D only, the system will have a battery life of 5 to 8 hours. Full charge of the batter takes around 3.5 hours.

Tags: Nintendo, 3DS