Wii U Sales Drop by Over Half in New Quarter, Looks to Rebound With First Party Games
Nintendo's Wii U only sold 160,000 units between April and June-- a number that is less than half the amount of the previous quarter.
Altogether the console has sold 3.61 million systems since November, netting them a profit of $88 million, reported Joystiq.
At this time last year Nintendo was reporting loses of $174 million, so despite the lack of sales, they are still taking positive steps.
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Joystiq reported that the extra income is coming from the exchange rates between Yen and U.S. dollars and the huge success of the hand held 3DS.
Nintendo feels its struggles are their own fault, citing they have not been able to appease fans with more first party titles. However, they are working to rectify that will upcoming releases.
"Nintendo strives to improve the sales by communicating the compelling nature of our hardware and software to as many people as possible through our new network service called 'Miiverse,' which offers an environment where people can empathize with others and share their gaming experiences," the company said in a statement. "We also strive to improve hardware profitability by reducing its costs."
Their comeback plans are being squashed a bit by large U.K. chain Asda. The store will not be stocking any Wii U's, and carry only limited games for the system on a case by case basis.
"Asda will stock [Wii U] games on a title by title merit basis as they come along through Asda Direct. We will continue to support Nintendo as a format holder partner," a Asda representative said to Computer and Video Games.
Nintendo issued a statement concerning the decision by Asda to CVG.
"Nintendo UK does not comment on specific business practices with individual retailers. However, as we have seen with Nintendo 3DS, software sells hardware, and with titles such as Wonderful 101, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and Super Mario 3D World already announced for this year as well as the recently released Pikmin 3 and New Super Luigi U having reached number 2 and number 6 in this week's chart respectively, we are looking forward to the year ahead on Wii U," the statement read.
