E311 | Nintendo 3DS Struggling in UK

New software figures released for the UK from Japanese publication Famitsu show the dire state of the Nintendo 3DS at the moment. After the first two weeks of its European launch all software seemingly disappeared from sight completely, with only LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean entering the UK Top 40 chart upon release a few weeks back, and Pilotwings Resort re-entering last week due to massive price cuts.

Although hardware figures are unavailable, checking out the total software share ratio for the month of April makes for sad reading:

Total Unit Sales by Platform - April 2011 [ Percentage Share | Sale Units ]
1.) Xbox 360　- 30.6% | 923,000
2.) PlayStation 3 - 22.6% | 682,000
3.) Wii　- 16.5% | 498,000
4.) Nintendo DS - 15.2% | 458,000
5.) PC　- 10.5% | 317,000
6.) PlayStation Portable　- 2.3% | 69,000
7.) Nintendo 3DS　- 2.3% | 69,000
8.) PlayStation 2 - 0.1% | 3,000

For comparison's sake, after just one week (since the 3DS launched on 25th March), the 3DS software share was 3.9%, totalling 160,000 pieces of software sold, only beating out the PSP and PS2.

For reference, below is the list of best-selling games for April 2011:

Top 10 UK Software Sales - April 2011 [ This Month | Lifetime Sales ]
1.) Zumba Fitness (Wii) -　92,000 | 144,000
2.) Portal 2 (360) - 62,000 | NEW
3.) Mortal Kombat (PS3) - 48,000 | NEW
4.) Mortal Kombat (360) -　44,000 | NEW
5.) Portal 2 (PS3) -　39,000 | NEW
6.) Crysis 2 (360) -　36,000 | 118,000
7.) Pokémon Black Version (NDS) -　36,000 | 168,000
8.) Pokémon White Version (NDS) -　36,000 | 188,000
9.) Wii Fit Plus (Wii) -　34,000 | Unknown
10.) Just Dance 2 -　30,000 | 1,106,000

The good news for Nintendo, though, is that in the breakdown of publisher sales share, whilst EA was top with 21.4% (645,000 sales), Nintendo was second for April, with a 10.5% (equating to 317,000 sales).

Do you think the Nintendo 3DS will pick up considerably with both The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D on the horizon?