Nintendo has revealed sales of the Wii U console have amounted to just 160,000 units over the last three months in their reults for the first quarter of financial year 2014.
According to their own report "The worldwide sales of 'Wii U' hardware and software were 0.16 million units and 1.03 million units respectively mainly due of few key first-party titles to strongly drive the hardware sales."
During the period Nintendo made an operating loss of 4.92 billion yen ($50 million) and had net sales of 81.5 billion yen ($832 million). However, the company reported a net profit of 8.6 billion yen ($88 million) for the quarter compared to a loss of 17.2 billion yen ($175 million) for the same period last year.
The decline in Wii U sales represents a 51.3 per cent fall from the previous quarter and just 3.61 million units have been sold compared to the company's estimates of 5.5 million systems – a figure they had expected to reach by March.
Nintendo's biggest problems lie in Europe where just 10,000 Wii U consoles were sold during the quarter. 90,000 Wii Us were sold in Japan while Nintendo moved 60,000 consoles in North America.
Things were looking better for the 3DS however with 1.4 million hardware units sold during the quarter and while that represents a 25 per cent fall year-on-year, software sales were 49 per cent higher due to titles such as Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
Earlier this week UK retailer Asda ceased stocking Wii U consoles and games in its stores and while no reason was given the system's poor sales almost certainly played a part in the decision. Asda will continue to sell select Wii U games on its Asda Direct website.
Source: Nintendo Co. Ltd.
