In an announcement just before Christmas, Enterbrain - which publishes the Japanese magazine Famitsu - revealed that the sales of the Nintendo 3DS in Japan had crossed the `4 million' mark; with 500,000 units of the device having been sold during the Christmas week alone!

The Nintendo 3DS witnessed a rather rough start, both in critical and financial terms, with the rather tepid customer response to the device - which was launched in Japan in February - resulting in a plunge in the stocks for the game company in July.

However, in a notably quick response to the situation, and in an attempt to bolster the lackluster sales of the 3DS, Nintendo announced a $80 price-cut on the handheld console in July itself; with the result that the sales of the device nearly tripled in September.

Even though the tree-fold increase in the Nintendo 3DS sales will not help the company avert a foreseeable year-end loss, Nintendo has, in a recent confirmation of the November rumors, said that it is set to include paid downloadable content (DLC) in future games.

According to the details share by Nintendo, the new `Fire Emblem: Kakusei' for the 3DS will be the first game with paid DLC; and, as per a Nikkei report, the game will cost "several hundred yen." It is also being reported that the coming summer will witness an increasing number of titles supporting the new paid DLC feature.