There’s no longer any debating it: Nintendo’s Wii U is an absolute disaster. People were shocked when we talked about what a tremendous failure the Wii U would be following its launch back in 2012, but it’s now a matter of public record. While anyone who has tried the console will tell you that games on the system are just as fun and exciting as they have ever been, the Wii U lacks the flair and innovation that made the Wii such a success. And now, this simple truth is coming back to bite Nintendo yet again — the company said on Friday that terrible Wii U sales will result in its third consecutive annual loss. Nintendo also slashed its 2014 Wii U sales forecast 70 % from 9 million units to just 2.8 million, fewer than the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 sold in just over a month following their respective launches last year.
“We failed to reach our target for hardware sales during the year-end, when revenues are the highest,” said Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata at a shareholder briefing, according to Reuters.
Nintendo recently dropped the price of the Wii U console by $50 in an effort to spur sales, and the release of the highly anticipated game Super Mario 3D World was expected to help bolster console sales as well. Neither move had the desired impact, however, and the future of Nintendo’s latest console is up in the air as a result.
