Also, since everybody appears to have lost hope in the 3DS, I'd like to point out that these sales are far from terrible. It's tracking well below DS in its fourth week, which was at 340k(!), but that was during the holidays with a much stronger launch line-up. Within four weeks of then, it had declined to current 3DS levels and then continued to decline till it hit sub-30k, even though that was in a stronger month than March. If 3DS can hold at a decent 40k or so, which shouldn't be too hard, regardless of whether or not it's below PSP, it won't be hard to start tracking ahead of DS again. On top of that, the real hitters, as far as software goes, are soon to come.

I'd say it's more PSP's sales that's making people think 3DS is doing terrible than 3DS's own sales.

EDIT - Wow, I was just beaten by a post completely contradicting me, xD.

I don't see how the launches of GBA and PS2 matter, though - they were ridiculously frontloaded and even ahead of the DS, which they didn't near in LT sales.

Well, one could argue that the PSP-GO is not part of the PSP "Family" as it does not utilize UMD's.

Let's all forget about the horrible disaster that just happened and the fact that 3DS is the most pre ordered console ever in the west.

It all depends on how later software releases will effect its sales, much like with the DS.

The DS had Nintendogs pretty early on in Japan.  Nintendogs Cats has sold only a fraction of what the original sold (<200k vs ~2 million). 

Mario Kart, the next Super Mario Bros., and inevitably Pokemon should turn things around.  The question is when will they arrive, and whether the NGP will be able to gain any ground in the interim.

But remember that the DS had a lot more going for it than the 3DS.  It was a relatively cheap device with an abundance of software support and an innovative control scheme that helped lure in a larger market than previous handhelds.  The 3DS is more or less a DS 2.0, only with a much higher pricetag and so far a rather quiet release schedule.

Oh, c'mon. Nintendogs Cats has been out for all of four weeks on a 700k base. And it's gonna have legs, :P.

Also, it's not as if the 3DS is in a terrible position either. It has the largest Japanese userbase in history to fish new customers from, for one, and an innovative feature that could potentially do the same as Touch and Dual Screen. It also has a huge room for pricecuts. On top of that, I'd argue that it has anything but a quiet release schedule (in the long term, at least). With games like Zelda on their way, it really isn't in a position worse than the DS's as far as software goes.

Nintendogs had a 170k opening week.  As of its fourth week, it was already at 365k:

http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/sales/1657/nintendogs/

No, duh! It had a 2m base to sell to! If the sequel keeps it attach rate, which is possible, but not necessary, it ought to end up higher by the time 3DS hits 2m.

DS also had it's first holiday season all to itself if I am not mistaken. If NGP releases this year the 3DS won't have that luxury, especially if they are at the same price point.

I also think that saying PS2 and GBA sales were front loaded means nothing because what makes you so sure that 3DS isn't front loaded?

I also do not think that people are saying it is terrible, it is just that we are giving reasons as to why we think the sales are dropping as quickly as they are and to be honest we could be spot on. $250 is a lot for a handheld.

It was for the PSP and it certainly is as well for the 3DS.

It didn't. PSP released almost at the exact same time and PS2 and GBA were still riding strong, with the PS2 constantly outselling it, as appears to be the case with the PSP this time.

I'm not exactly sure how successful NGP will be or how much it will affect or be affected by the 3DS considering we barely know anything about it so far, so we'll just have to wait and see for that one.

The 3DS has not started off as well as  thought it would in Japan, being well below the GBA and DS launches, although with the DS launching during the holidays it is not a completly fair comparison. Still the 3DS is above the PSPs launch, which also launched during the holidays, and we all see how succesful the PSP is now.

For now I think it is just that Nintendo did not have the right mix of games in Japan for launch, or a big release since then. If Resident Evil and Zelda are not enough to boost the 3DS up some in June, then I'll start to be concerned that the 3DS' problem is more than just a lack of compelling software for the region.

My initial guess was that 3DS would sell 4 million by the end of 2011 in Japan, which would put in on par with the DS' first full year. I think it should still be able to do that, and I would consider that a successful start.