14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo is admitting that the Wii U home console, which was launched in late 2012 on all major markets, has failed to reach the same initial sales as its predecessor, but the company maintains that the device has moved units at a steady pace all over the world.
Satoru Iwata, the leader of Nintendo, is quoted by CVG as saying that, “At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn’t as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock, as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom. But sales are not bad, and I feel it’s selling steadily.”
The most recent figures about Wii U sales are those released soon after launch and show that the console has moved 400,000 units in the United States, a little over 300,000 in the home territory of Japan and a little more than 40,000 in the United Kingdom.
Iwata is also reiterating the official Nintendo talking point that the device will reach the 5.5 million sales mark before the end of March 2013.
At that point, the current fiscal year will end and the video game publisher and hardware maker needs a strong performance from the Wii U in order to post a set of positive results.
The company president also believes that the difference between the Yen and the dollar will have a minimal impact on the end of the year result.
Since the Wii U was launched, the value share for Nintendo has dropped by a little more than 15 percent.
Since its rollout, the new home console has failed to get much support via big video games launches and Nintendo is expected to reveal a new slate of games that will be released late this year.
The main selling point of the Wii U is the touch screen enabled GamePad controller.