Kingdom or Japan, and restarting the console before downloading. The console can be switched back to the American region after the download is complete. Reception Upon its release, Dead or Alive 3 received generally favorable reviews, three points shy of "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Anthony Chau of IGN stated that it "represents the new standard of excellence that only the Xbox can deliver," praising the game for its great attention to detail and its vast improvements on its predecessor. On the other hand, GameSpots Greg Kasavin opined that "once you get past its graphics, you'll find that Dead or Alive 3 doesn't offer much of anything that hasn't been done in other 3D fighting games." NextGen said that the game was "Quite possibly the best 3D fighting game ever made, both in graphics and gameplay." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 37 out of 40. Dead or Alive 3 was awarded "Console Fighting Game of the Year" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, and was a runner-up for the "Outstanding Achievement in Animation" award, which went to Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee. The game was also awarded "Outstanding Fighting Game Sequel" and nominated for "Outstanding Animation in a Game Engine" by the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. The game was also awarded "Best Console Fighting Game" and was nominated for "Best Graphics in a Console Game", "Best Multiplayer Console Game", and "Xbox Game of the Year" by The Electric Playground. The game won GameSpots annual "Best Graphics, Technical" prize among console games, but also received a nomination in the "Most Disappointing Game" category, and was a runner-up for the "Best Xbox Game" category. The game was also nominated for "Xbox Game of the Year" at the Golden Joystick Awards. The game is one of the best-selling installments in the series. In 2002, Tecmo announced the game had reached sales of over 1 million copies worldwide in the first five months after its release. By July 2006, it had sold 950,000 copies and earned $36 million in the U.S. alone. NextGen ranked it as the 59th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of Dead or Alive fighting games released in the 2000s reached 1.3 million units in the U.S. by July 2006. The game became the third