Japanese economy has been worse than the US for well over two decades. We know nothing like their perpetual recessions.

i dont know why people are saying there were no games released in the west, Mario tennis, kid icarus, pokemon blast, MGS3D, Tekken, Spiderman, RE: R, mario & sonic, etc. Now why these games arent flying off the shelves and making 3ds sell "well" in the west, hell if i know

MGS, Kid Icarus, Resident Evil are all fine series; but none of those are huge franchises - sales of games in those franchises are always limited to 3-5 million lifetime, tops; much fewer on handheld even. There hasn't been a huge franchise game released since Mario Kart that can do over 15 million lifetime. Of course, if there were like 20-30 RE/MGS caliber games, it might make up for it.

I think New Super Mario Brothers 2 should help out a lot

That's the sad truth about these kinds of things.  I was hoping for a more successful Resident Evil and Kid Icarus sales, but they're relatively low in comparison to Mario Kart and Super Mario.

there are few games that will do 15 mil on any system. Surely, you cant expect 3DS to churn out one of those every other month. But looking at the sale for those games you mentioned i doubt they will even reach sales that the other games in the same series usually enjoy

*sigh*

Srsly?

Oh yeah, forgot to answer the question.

I say "games."

Better ask: Why is't doing insane in japan..:)

In the vest it's pretty good to.. and i remember back when it hit 4 mill. faster than ds in the us..

Soon the 3DS XL.. And this holiday, will make it even bigger.. true cult.. and i bet that wii u and 3ds will be in top in every region.. After holiday it will stay that way.. just wait and see :)

Actually.. In some holiday weeks.. It's very likely, that we will have 4 nintendo consols in the top :)

The economy is really in a bad shape in Europe, a lot of friends of mine have started to quit buying new games, and they now just buy them second hand...

GAMES!... thats the reason. The price is right, power and marketing are standard for a succesful handheld, but it need more games from:

3rd Party Western Publishers are not supporting the platform like the Eastern guys- EA, Bioware, Activision, Epic, Bethesda, Rockstar, Take-Two, THQ and Ubisoft. All of this company are not suporting the 3DS platform with their big core franchises neither they are releasing a lot quality games (or in some cases they are not supporting the console at all!)

Just look at EA, one of the biggest publishers in the World, they have only released subpar rushed dumbed down launch titles (a Sims game, Fifa 12 and Madden 3DS) and Need for speed: The Run; where is Dead Space? where is NBA Jam? where is Mass Effect? where are Battlefield or Crisis or a Medal of Honor game?

Now compare that to a japanese developer like Capcom, with Big games like Monser Hunter TriG (and the soon to be released Monster Hunter 4), Resident Evil Revelations and Mercenaries, Super Street Figher 3DS, Project X Zone, Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, Ace attorney 5, Ex Troopers. Now lets do this with Square Enix, we have games like Kingdom Hearts 3D, Dragon Quest Monsters: TW 3D, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, Heroes of Ruin, Theathrytm Final Fantasy. This developers actually tried to make quality games and they are supporting big time!