So far video game analysts have been less than impressed by the Wii U. Most think it will fail in one way or another, while others are cautious, at best. But analysts from IHS Screen Digest believe that the Wii U will not only be a success, it will be a bigger success than the original Wii, initially.
They believe the Wii U will sell 50 million units in the first 4 years. They base this on the fact that the Wii is an established brand that brought many new Nintendo fans, which will go after the Wii U when it comes out. IHS also says that Wii U’s innovation and Nintendo’s strong first party lineup of games — both for launch and later — will create a huge demand for the console.
Piers Harding-Rolls, the senior analyst at IHS, did say, however, that the Wii U is unlikely to surpass the Wii in terms of total sales, which of course isn’t a big surprise. He cites the higher price of the Wii U as the main reason. The original Wii console is nearing 100 million units sold.
Nintendo forecasts that it will sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles by March 2013, coupled with 24 million Wii U games. This number has been called “unrealistic” by Michael Pachter, a vocal critic of Nintendo and its new console.
