Analyst thinks it is gone round the U bend
The NPD Group has released figures which seems to indicate that the sales for the Wii U hardware for its first three months on the market are down 38 percent on what its predecessor made.
If this is the case, it would mean that Nintendo is about to fade from the scene as its new hardware cannot compete. The Wii U was released in November and was the first Nintendo console to support high-definition graphics, capable of producing video output up to 1080p, and has 2 GB of RAM with half dedicated to the console's operating system. It was supposed to replace the Wii.
According to Gamasutra sales for January were "well under" 100,000 units. This would suggest figures like 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.
NPD's suggests that the Wii U SKUs of multiplatform games compare to other SKUs is not good. When games exist on both Wii and the Wii U (Just Dance 4, NBA 2K13, Madden NFL 13, Skylanders Giants and FIFA Soccer 13), the Wii version came out on top every time. In Madden's case, it was even outsold by the portable version for Sony's Vita handheld, which is a little sad.
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Nick Farrell
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