Nintendo is hoping to sell 9 million units of its Wii U gaming console in 2013, but according to several analysts the goal seems highly unachievable because of the huge success of recently launched Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One.
Microsoft and Sony both managed to sell more consoles in 24 hours than Nintendo could in 9 months. According to latest reports from MCV, PlayStation 4 sold over 250,000 consoles in 48 hours in the UK generating around £87 million in sales while both the consoles sold well over a million units within 24 hours of their respective launches.
Back in October Nintendo President Satoru Iwata revealed that he was confident of meeting with 9 million Wii U sales target; however, analysts are of the opinion that the company would only be able to sell 6.2 million units.
Michael Pachter, a Los Angeles-based analyst with Wedbush Securities Inc., has revealed to Bloomberg in an emailed statement that the company will only be able to sell 6 million units and will miss their profit goals. “They steadfastly refuse to consider that the product is not interesting to consumers.”
“They will fail to hit 9 million, and they will likely miss their profit goals”, Pachter added.
Eiji Maeda, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. in Tokyo, said “Wii U needs groundbreaking software to draw casual and hardcore gamers”, noted Bloomberg. Maeda expects Nintendo to sell 6.5 million units of Wii U machines by 2013.
Nintendo has already acknowledged that the gaming console hasn’t worked for the company and that Wii U still remains a big problem for Nintendo. The company said, “hardware still has a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits, owning mainly to its markdown in the United States and Europe.”
That’s a shame cause I grew up as a Nintendo guy, but ever since I switched to Playstation, I feel like I can’t go back. Nintendo has given me very little reason to. There were only a handful of games I liked for the Gamecube and Wii. I was particularly disappointed with Skyward Sword for the Wii.