Frank Cifaldi for Gamasutra:
We’re told by someone with access to the NPD’s data that sales for January were “well under” 100,000 units. By our estimates, sales were somewhere between 45,000 and 59,000 units for the month, which is lower than any of the three previous-generation home consoles sold in their worst months, with the possible exception of a recent performance by the original Wii.
Ouch. And that’s with an extra “leap” week in January to bolster sales. This is continuing to look like a total disaster for Nintendo.
And it just feels like Nintendo are the only ones not surprised by this. Such a sad story. The Wii U always just felt so gimmicky in my eyes. I’ve never tried one, but I don’t really care to either. Could just be that I don’t play games anymore.
I just hope Nintendo isn’t killed by this. I think they’d be smart to cut back and focus on software. Zelda and Mario and Donkey Kong need to live on. iOS seems like a great place for that. I think they could demand premium prices like most game shops can’t.
