Retailers deny 3DS scare story

Tabloid reports of "record return levels" for the 3DS, which have "left thousands with dizziness and headaches", have been denied by all parties following a report today in The Sun.

The British tabloid used the personal testimony of an alleged 3DS owner and claimed that retailers HMV and GAME had been inundated with demands for refunds.

GamesIndustry.biz sister site Eurogamer contacted the three companies named in the report and according to Nintendo, "The number of calls and emails with queries on Nintendo 3DS is in fact well below the rate experienced during past hardware launches and having spoken with our retail partners there are only a handful of people who have actually gone into stores to request a refund."

We've had less than five people complain that they feel sick and want to return [the 3DS].

GAME

Retailer GAME confirmed that, "We've had less than five people complain that they feel sick and want to return [the 3DS]."

Chain store HMV has suggested that The Sun may have become confused over figures for trade-ins for games and hardware, which many retailers have used as a promotion to reduce the cost of the new 3DS.

HMV specifically denied The Sun's claim that it was "refunding fully", with the retailer commenting that, "that we are not aware of any manufacturing fault with the 3DS console - which we have seen huge demand for, and that we have not issued any refunds for it.

On Friday Nintendo announced record-breaking weekend sales of 113,000 units for the 3DS in the UK, out of a European total of 303,000.