Last week, in Japan, the Wii U sold approximately 22,200 units, compared to the previous week in which it sold 13,950 units, resulting in a sales increase of 169%. Many have attributed this jump in sales to the release of Pikmin 3, which sold over 100,000 copies in just the first two days. Sure, some of those Pikmin 3 customers already had a Wii U, but not all of them. It will be interesting to see how North American and European sales compare when Pikmin 3 is released here and there.
Something I have been saying for a while, and was mirrored in a comment on one of yesterday’s posts, is that the Hardware (Although cool and innovative) does not necessarily sell the units. Great games, mixed with a reasonable price, sell units. The console’s power is meaningless if there are not great games to take advantage of the power. This is the perfect example of that. Now that we are approaching the projected release dates of the Xbox One and the PS4, Nintendo is starting to roll out the heavy hitters. Already, after one of the releases in one country, we are seeing a huge increase in sales for the console. Imagine what will happen when the other heavy hitters are released. Some analysts have said that this fall will determine the fate of the Wii U, I remember something similar being said about the 3DS, but I think the Wii U has nothing to worry about at this time. Give it a full year after the launch of the other next gen consoles, compare the sales, and then see who the winner is.