Wii U Sales: Nintendo Hopes to Boost Interest in System by Offering An App for Android

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Nintendo hopes to boost interest in the Wii U by offering an app for Android-based smartphone users.

The company's Satoru Iwata announced earlier this month that Nintendo was looking into a new business structure that would incorporate smart devices. Many originally thought full games would be a part of this strategy, but it appears that the company will go another route.

A new report from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei states that that Nintendo will introduce a free app that includes information on new games such as videos and character profiles along with some mini games.

"But Nintendo will not simply put Mario, Pokemon or other games on smartphones," read the report. "According to the report, Nintendo plans to use Android and/or iOS devices to market its console games."

The mini games are said to be playable demos of Wii U or 3DS games, however, full versions will only be available for the actual consoles. The company hopes to entice players with the app and boost overall sales. This will also allow Nintendo to infiltrate many of its competitors as smartphones and tablets have hurt the company's handheld sales significantly in recent years.

Nintento's president Satoru Iwata released a statement regarding the sales of the Wii U and 3DS earlier this month and discussed the strong points and shortcomings of both systems.

The Wii U showed a bit of progress, according to Satoru who felt that some of the bundles Nintendo created and other deals helped the overall sales of the console.

"Wii U sales, on the other hand, showed some progress in the year-end sales season as we released various compelling titles from the summer onwards, launched hardware bundles at affordable price points and also performed a markdown of the hardware in the U.S. and European markets; however, they fell short of our targeted recovery by a large margin," he said.