Wii U Partners With Norwegian Cruise Line to Bring Consoles Fleetwide
Nintendo of America and Norwegian Cruise Line are partnering together to place the Wii U on all of the cruise line's ships.
According to the press release, the Wii U will be placed in all youth and teen centers on board. The cruise line and Nintendo previously partnered together in 2007 to distribute the Wii console.
"The Wii consoles have always been extremely popular among our guests," said Richard Ambrose, Norwegian Cruise Line's vice president of entertainment in the release. "The new Wii U systems are guaranteed to take gaming on board to the next level, and will surely be a hit."
"Wii U provides one of the most social video game experiences you can have, whether you're playing with family members or friends," said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales and Marketing in the press release. "The ships in Norwegian Cruise Line's fleet give people a great opportunity to experience Wii U for themselves, have fun playing Nintendo games and make some new friends."
Nintendo recently confirmed that the Wii U sold over 460,000 around the world in the last six months in a time period ending on Sept. 30. Altogether, the console sold 300,000 units last quarter, a significant increase from the 160,000 the previous quarter.
Nintendo also sold 6.3 million units of software in the last 6 months, and a total of 3.91 million Wii U's since launch, reported IGN.
While numbers still are not great, Nintendo's rise in popularity is largely due in part to the lowering of the cost of the console and the influx of exclusive games that were severely lacking at launch.
Pikmin 3, The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD and the upcoming Mario Bros U and Mario Kart 8 are helping turn things around.
Wii U sales have gone up by over 200 percent in the U.S. from August to September, and 685 percent in the U.K.