According to rumours generated by Destructoid's Jonathan Holmes Nintendo are attempting to spark interest in Wii U development by offering studios free Wii U dev kits which typically cost $5000.
Hearing more and more stories of Nintendo giving developers free Wii U dev kits. I hope devs take advantage of that. Could lead to victories
— Jonathan Holmes (@TronKnotts) April 5, 2013
Nintendo have yet to officially announce such a program and it's unclear which developers are being targeted with the free dev kits but such a move is not entirely surprising given that sales have consistently stuggled to make an impact.
Last month GameStop's president, Tony Bartel, admitted the retailer has seen "slower than expected" sales of the console. While Nintendo were forced to reduce their sales target to the end of March from 5.5 million to 4 million and it is not yet known if they've met the reduced number.
Noted industry analyst Micheal Pachter has commented that Nintendo "misfired" with the Wii U.
The Wii U has missed out on several major titles from third party publishers including Crysis 3, Alien: Colonial Marines (which probably isn't a bad thing all things considered) and more while Rayman Legends has been recast as a multiplatform title having being originally intended as a Wii U exclusive.
Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto has told CNN that consumers will see the value of the Wii U in time yet with new consoles from both Microsoft and Sony likely to launch globally over the next year Nintendo may have their work cut out for them.
