14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime is apparently confident that the Wii U console is second in the next-gen console race.
During last week's E3 convention, he was asked whether he believed that the Nintendo Wii U could ever outsell the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, its main competitors. He pointed out that the console had already done so.
"The dirty little secret is if you look at life-to-date numbers, between Sony and Nintendo they'd be pretty close in terms of PS4 vs. Wii U, with Xbox coming in third place," Fils-Aime told The Seattle Times.
He stated the company's belief that it didn't need to release a new next-gen console in order to compete with Sony's and Microsoft's, even though the Wii U's performance since launch wasn't as good as expected.
"We think that the Wii U has a long and vibrant life in front of it. What it needs are games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros Wii U and Splatoon - those types of games that can really drive the installed base. We believe if we can do that effectively the Wii U has a long and robust life," the executive said.
Even though the Wii U got a considerable head start in the next-gen race, its launch line-up wasn't all that great, and the hardware platform struggled to get more adopters, as well as more AAA developers to include it in their plans.
Fils-Aime is aware of that fact, pointing out that the delay of some of the platform's stronger titles was due to Nintendo's drive for quality.
"The interesting point there is that when we announced the Wii U and when we announced all of the launch details, we fully expected games like Wii Fit U, Pikmin, the The Wonderful 101 to be in the launch window.
"The Nintendo quality bar is really what kept us from launching those games potentially in February or March and so that's what created the lack of software during that initial launch phase," he explained.
The Nintendo Wii U has seen dwindling sales, even more so since the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms were launched.
The release of Mario Kart 8 earlier this month did wonders for it however, quadrupling the weekly Wii U sales and having been purchased by 18 percent of all the platform's owners, but Nintendo needs several more of these hits in order to remain competitive.
"I think it's going to be a three-horse race for the balance of this cycle," Fils-Aime concluded, expressing his confidence in the Wii U's future.