iwata

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata doesn't take kindly to talkings about Nintendo's "dedicated gaming hardware business." In fact, he is calling out all of those who doubt Nintendo by promising to sell a colossal five million Nintendo 3DS units.

At a recent Capcom event, Iwata announced that the Nintendo 3DS shipped a healthy 5.5 million Nintendo 3DS in the year 2012, bringing total sales to nearly 14 million worldwide. The only other video game console to ever accomplish such a feat was the original Nintendo DS.

"There are more and more media reports suggesting that things aren't going very well for the dedicated gaming hardware business," Iwata said in a story from Bloomberg. "But that's not true, at least for the 3DS in Japan."

Iwata's estimation comes in slightly lower than 2012's lofty sales records, but with guaranteed huge hits like Monster Hunter 4 and Pokemon X and Y crossing onto this side of the horizon, he has to be giving a conservative figure. Both are bound to sell many handhelds in its home country, and at least Pokemon is set to give the 3DS yet another amazing RPG boost in America after a megaton year for the genre.

Nintendo reported that it had sold 1.4 million 3DS units worldwide over the first three months of the financial year, but did not provide figures for how many it had sold in Japan. The figure had actually dropped from last year's 1.86 million.

In comparison, Sony had managed to sell 600,000 PSP and PS Vita devices in that same window.

Think the big N can pull it off for a second year running? The 3DS has some huge hits coming in fast, and it has been the hottest summer on record since 1942. Sweaty kids need to stay inside and play some Nintendo 3DS.