A troubling trend? Japanese weekly Wii U sales fall below PlayStation Vita

There's a first time for everything. For the Nintendo, last week — according to Media Create — marked the first time the Wii U's hardware sales have fallen below that of the PlayStation Vita. For week 8, 2013, spanning February 18-24, the Wii U managed to sell a dismal 9,633 units. Don't necessarily chalk this up to an increased interest in the Vita though; it still only sold a pedestrian 11,456 units.

Comparatively, the 3DS sold a whopping 74,729 units. Though this is lower than last week, it was still much higher than the second place PlayStation 3 which sold 18,529 consoles.

The subpar Wii U sales could be attributed to a lackluster lineup of games. The best selling Wii U game last week was the recently released Tank! Tank! Tank!, and even that only managed to place 13th on the list. While the Vita isn't faring any better on the software front, Sony did recently announce a price cut for the system in Japan; though, that isn't expected to go into effect until tomorrow. I'd expect the Vita's sales numbers to climb a bit higher again next week.

Interestingly enough, if you look at the better-selling systems, you'll notice their software tends to perform better. Whether this is because more people own the console or because these games drive console sales is a moot point. It's the chicken and egg question. All I know is that the 3DS is dominating software sales in Japan, proving that software is a very important aspect. It's not like Sony doesn't recognize this either. Back in February, Kazuo Hirai acknowledged that Sony must do a better job promoting the Vita, citing games as the biggest incentive in attracting consumers.

So get on it Sony! You too, Nintendo. You both are disappointing me (and investors).

[NeoGAF]