Wii U Sales Rise 200 Percent Since $50 Price Drop in US
Wii U sales have gone up by over 200 percent in the U.S. from August to September.
The sales numbers have gone up due to the $50 price cut to the console on Sept. 20, and also the number of first party beloved Nintendo games heading to shelves in the next few months.
While the price cut and number jump is impressive, it still is not a huge number because of how bad the sales were prior to the increase.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"Their sales remain pretty weak, so although the price cut helped, it isn't enough of a turnaround to instill confidence that sales will rebound," Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told NBC News.
The Wii U sold only 160,000 worldwide from April 30 to June 30. Its predecessor, the Wii, sold 210,000 units in that same time frame, reported NBC News.
The console's U.K. sales rose 685 percent, according to reports from last week.
The numbers were confirmed by a Nintendo representative, reported MCV.
The high Wii U sales are due in part to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD launch on Oct. 4. It is currently number four on the video game sales charts in the U.K.
Nintendo is expected to give an update on the console's sales on Oct. 30 and currently has sold 3.61 million units.
Nintendo of America's Scott Moffitt recently told Forbes he was confident third party developers would flood the console in 2014.
"We don't see this as an either-or proposition. Nintendo is in the unique position of being both a hardware manufacturer as well as a software producer. We want Wii U to be the console that every developer wants to publish on," Moffitt said.
"A key way to make that happen is to grow the installed base of Wii U owners, and we know that current Wii U owners are very happy with their purchases," he continued. "Our great lineup in the second half of the year will create more buyers, and beyond that third-party support is important to attract as diverse an audience as possible."
Highly anticipated games Zelda Wii U, Super Smash Bros 4, Super Mario 3D World, and Luigi U could help grab more developers and gamers, but that remains to be seen.
