Nintendo's Wii U is a compelling piece of gaming hardware, but anyone who owns one can tell you that it's lacking in the software department.
That apparently includes Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who admitted Wednesday that the console's lack of games is hurting sales.
Wii U sales came in at a disappointing 3.45 million at the end of last month, well below Nintendo's original forecasts for the year, and even below its lower, revised forecast of 4 million consoles sold.
But the house that Mario built expects to move another 9 million Wii Us by March 2014, and to do that it's going to - surprise - release more games, said Iwata.
More games, more money
Iwata admitted to Japanese media that the Wii U's lack of momentum this year can be attributed to the console's lack of games.
Wii U owners have had titles like New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo Land and ZombiU to munch on for months now, and besides the odd Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate there honestly hasn't been much else since the console launched last year.
Now that Nintendo has made it known that it's aware of this fact, hopefully it will be able to do something about it.
Iwata said that "plenty of great games for Wii U" will be coming out by the end of the year, though Nintendo's odd (to say the least) withdrawal from E3 doesn't have us brimming with confidence.
Can upcoming Wii U titles like Pikmin 3, Wii Fit U and the next Zelda game really salvage a flailing console anyway? We certainly hope so, but even Nintendo's traditionally powerful first-party brands have got to start waning at some point.
Nothing lasts forever, after all, and we've been questioning lately whether characters like Mario can really save the Wii U.
What else?
Iwata also said that Nintendo will continue offering more and more online content, and that it could soon begin allowing Japanese gamers to utilize the Wii U's NFC capabilities to make purchases with something called "Suica" cards.
Iwata clearly hopes that making e-payments easier will result in more digital Wii U purchases.
This week the Wii U received a much-needed and much-hyped update that improved its UI responsiveness and added important features like background downloads.
Whether it will be enough to persuade jaded Wii U owners to turn their consoles on again, well, we'll just have to wait.
Via PC World
