The Wii U hasn’t been doing so hot this last year as the new console struggled to find an audience thanks to its high price and lack of first party games. Nintendo started to address both of those problems in September, but it seemingly wasn’t enough to have any positive impact on its latest quarterly results.
Nintendo announced today that it had managed to sell 460,000 Wii U units over the last six months. It’s an improvement from earlier this year when the system only managed to sell 360,000 units in the first six months of 2013, but it’s still not great.
The company notes that it’s two big Wii U software releases in the last six months were Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. Both titles have undoubtedly contributed to an uptick in Wii U sales, but it’s still slow going for the console. Overall, Nintendo has sold 6.30 million Wii U software units over the last six months.
So, what about Nintendo’s others systems? For the 3DS, Nintendo reports that it sold 3.89 million hardware units globally in the last six months. It’s been even better for software as the company has sold 27.38 million 3DS software units over the last six months. Among those sales, the heavy hitters were Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.
As for the Nintendo DS family and the Wii, Nintendo sold 100,000 and 470,000 hardware units respectively. Let that sink in for a moment there. The 7-year-old Wii sold more than the Wii U in the last six months.
Despite having another gloomy quarter, Nintendo says things are on the upswing. It expects to sell through more Wii U units in the holidays thanks upcoming titles like Wii Party U and Super Mario 3D World. It also expects the price drop and value-added bundles will help contribute to its success around the world.
As for the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo expects an excellent holiday season thanks to the release of Pokemon X/Y and the Nintendo 2DS.
The 3DS will continue to do well into the holiday season, but the Wii U, which has already faced considerable competition from the years-old Xbox 360 and PS3, will have to face more challengers when the PS4 and Xbox One launch next month. Analysts are already predicting that both consoles will do gangbusters, and the Wii U may very well get lost in the next-gen excitement.
As the old adage goes, however, never count Nintendo out.
[Image: Nintendo/YouTube]