Just under one year after going on sale in Japan, Nintendo's 3DS has reached the milestone of 5 million units sold in its homeland. That's a month or two faster than its predecessor, the DS, which you may recall went on to be the best-selling video game console of all time. The 3DS is the fastest system ever to hit the 5 million mark in Japan, and looking at the chart above it's pretty easy to see why. While it got off to a very slow start, with a high price of 25,000 yen ($250 in the US) and an uninspiring software lineup, the dramatic price drop to 15,000 yen ($169.99 in the US) in late summer and release of banner titles such as Super Mario 3D Land, Monster Hunter 3 (-tri) G and Mario Kart 7 have turned the system's fortunes around. It's something of a pyrrhic victory, though — the costs incurred by such a heavy price cut have caused the company to forecast the first annual operating loss in its history.