Nintendo has sold just 460,000 Wii U systems worldwide in the six month period ending September 30, 2013. On the bright side, the Wii U outperformed last quarter's 160,000 units sold by selling roughly 300,000 units this quarter.
What makes this quarter's sales even scarier is the fact that the Wii U saw a price reduction and was supported with quite a few high profile releases including Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.
The only thing really benefiting Nintendo were favorable exchange rates. Because of these rates, Nintendo actually managed to turn a small profit of ¥600 million ($6.1 million), which is actually a marked improvement over the previous year's loss of ¥28 billion ($186 million).
Despite the profit, Nintendo cited Wii U hardware as a "negative impact" on its profits. The company blamed the loss on price cuts in Europe and the U.S., along with advertising and game development as other significant factors.
With the latest figures, Nintendo's system now sits at 3.91 million life-to-date sales. This undoubtedly makes Nintendo's goal of 9 million units sold by the end of the 2014 financial year very unlikely, though the company has opted not to change its target. Rather, Nintendo hopes to hit its goal by reducing the cost of hardware manufacturing and offering the Wii U hardware "at an affordable price by bundling software with the system." Nintendo also vowed to "try new promotional activities such as a campaign where users can experience "Wii Fit U" free of charge."
While Nintendo is clearly struggling with the Wii U, Sony and Microsoft have high hopes for their own next-gen systems. Next month, the game industry will see the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Many are hoping these systems will boost the sales of a struggling industry — something the Wii U proved incapable of doing.
