Wii U Sales Hurt by First Party Game Delays, Nintendo Vows to Keep 'Pace Consistent'
Nintendo Wii U's struggles have largely been due to the lack of solid games available for the platform, and now as the better games are coming out, they admit-tingly acknowledge the delays hurt them.
"When we launched the Wii U, we were pointing to Pikmin, we were pointing to Wii Fit U, and we were pointing to Zelda and Mario--so all of these great games that are coming out now, we wanted them to come out by the end of March last year," Fils-Aime said to Siliconera. "That's been the biggest challenge we've had. We knew we had a great line-up. We wanted it to launch much earlier to drive the system."
With the steady release of first party games, the Wii U's sales are improving, making this the perfect time for Nintendo to strike and really grab hold of the video game market.
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"We have to make sure that the pipeline for new games has that steady pace. We've had it arguably since July, in terms of that regular pace of games--and guess what? The Wii U has responded, and we just have to make sure that that pace is consistent," Fils-Aime continued.
Their latest titles have included Super Mario 3D World, Wii Fit U, and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD remake. Coming later this month is Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Early next year gamers can expect Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros 4, and perhaps Zelda Wii U.
Nintendo was anticipating selling around nine million units this year, and not only is that number far reaching but it is not even close if adding last year's totals as well. As the console stands now, it has sold 3.91 million units since its launch last fall. Compare that to the PS4 and Xbox One selling one million each on their launch day, and the Wii U's numbers are not impressive at all.
"They steadfastly refuse to consider that the product is not interesting to consumers," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said according to Bloomberg. "They will fail to hit 9 million, and they will likely miss their profit goals.
"Wii U has become a game console only for Nintendo fans," Eiji Maeda of SMBC Nikko Securities said. "Wii U needs groundbreaking software to draw casual and hardcore gamers."
According to CVG, both analyst predict the Wii U will be hovering in the six million sold numbers by March 2014.
