Nintendo’s global president Satoru Iwata has admitted that they have been “unable to incite enough excitement” for Wii U, citing numerous reasons for a lack of sales momentum.
Having discussed the global sales performance of the Nintendo 3DS, Iwata soon turned his attention to the Wii U. He blamed a lack in supplies of the Wii U Deluxe Set, as well as delays to key first-party software releases early this year, as the reasons for a lack of market penetration.
“On the other hand, sales of Wii U progressed favorably in the beginning except for the imbalance of supply and demand between the Wii U Deluxe Set and the Wii U Basic Set,” he began. “However, since we were unable to incite enough excitement in society, we have failed to maintain its momentum after the turn of the year.”
He continued, “In addition to this, because of some delays on the development side, we were unable to continuously supply software at the beginning of this calendar year. This has further upset our scenario for market penetration, for which momentum is the key.”
“While it was pointed out that, unlike in the case of Wii, it was difficult to instantly understand the appeal of Wii U, those who purchased it, although there are issues to be addressed, have shown a certain degree of satisfaction with our product value, but since its value by nature is something that takes time to appreciate and hence cannot be spread amongst society instantly, we have yet to communicate its value to the wider public.
“To put it another way, we delivered Wii U to those consumers who we thought would be the first to buy it, but information has not successfully been passed on to those consumers who we think will be the next people to buy it. This must be one big factor with which Wii U could not maintain its momentum.
“People always try to compare the sales of Wii U with that of Wii, but the current situation is requiring us to focus upon how to re-energise Wii U sales irrespective of any comparisons with the previous platforms.”
Iwata: Nintendo “unable to incite enough excitement” for Wii U
