Wii U Sales Continue To Disappoint In February

Despite the massive mainstream success of Nintendo’s Wii console, the company has been struggling to push units of its newer console, the Wii U, since its launch in November of last year.

Nintendo and analysts alike expected sales of the Wii U would begin picking up in early 2013, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Data from market research firm NPD claimed that the Wii U only managed to move roughly 57,000 units in the United States during the month of January. Unfortunately for Nintendo, sales didn’t improve a great deal in February. NPD says that the Wii U only managed roughly 64,000 for that month.

For the sake of comparison, the Xbox 360, which is expected to be replaced later this year by Microsoft’s latest hardware offering, managed to sell 302,000 in the United States alone.

Although February saw a very slight sales increase for the Wii U, the extra sales didn’t do much to help the company recover from January’s horrendous sales figures. As Gamasutra reported last month, the Wii U’s sales figures were among the worst in decades.

While the Wii U may not be getting off to a good start, it’s far too early to say that the console is doomed. Nintendo has promised that it will aggressively support the console with titles from first and third parties alike, many of which will be releasing this year.

Speaking to Forbes, GameStop President Tony Bartel had this to say:

“Following the holiday launch period, sales have been slower than we expected. Nintendo plans on launching some of their biggest IP over the next few months which we think will increase gamer interest.

“We’re already seeing great developer and publisher support for PS4, so Wii U will need some great titles, especially first-party titles, to compete. There’s also a need to increase consumer awareness of the new features available on the Wii U and its tethered tablet features.”

Do you own a Wii U? Do you plan on purchasing one in the future? Let us know in the comments section below.