‘Mario Kart 8’ Sales Skyrocket, But Is It Enough To Save Nintendo Wii U?
Mario Kart 8 sales and reviews are some of the highest Nintendo has seen in years. Is it enough to save the Nintendo Wii U, though? We will only know in a year or two, Nintendo’s proposed window of success for the console.
Having only been out for just over a weekend and sold over a million copies, and with Metacritic scores of 85 and up, Nintendo may have found what it needs to keep aiming for.
If you look back, you’ll see a lot of remakes and bare-bones ports on the Nintendo Wii U, which was probably a large part of why nobody cared before. Mario Kart 8 is a genuinely new game, and having achieved the single player benchmark of a 1080p 60fps display, it even outperforms most of the games you’ll find on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Sony and Microsoft both struggle with the goal that so many gamers demand, but to be fair, they have both achieved it occasionally. The Xbox One is still clocking in at a lower resolution regularly, but technically it should be outperforming the Nintendo Wii U.
With the Mario Kart 8 sales nearly matching the game’s performance, Nintendo just needs to keep releasing games on that tier, and watch its competition perform the proverbial double-take.
Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime remarked about the game’s success:
“The early response to Mario Kart 8 demonstrates that the best days for Wii U are still ahead. This year’s E3 is just days away, and it will be all about the future games for Nintendo platforms. This milestone is a great place to start!”
Unfortunately, one game is not a trend. Nintendo is going to need more than just Mario Kart 8 sales to revive the failing console. If the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors doesn’t continue the success of the racing phenomenon, this could be the highlight of the year for them.
So,Mario Kart 8 just destroyed all of Watch_Dogs´s versions (PS3,PS4,XBONE,XBOX360,PC) in sales numbers. pic.twitter.com/SMYYwldArI
— Alex (=?? ? ??=) (@BatmanEatsPizza) June 2, 2014
The Nintendo Wii U will also need to be recognized as a profitable console if companies like EA and Ubisoft are going to give them more than token bare-bones ports. They might profit from a “special edition” of Pokemon X and Y on the failing console.
It’s going to take a series of exclusive games as successful and well received as Mario Kart 8 to turn things around.
Sony and Microsoft developers should both take notes as well: Before they boast about having the best resolution games, they need to achieve what Mario Kart 8 did, and regularly.
It might not save the Nintendo Wii U, but Mario Kart 8 sales don’t lie.
[image via digitaltrends]
