Wedbush Morgan and EEDAR have released their projected sales for console hardware for this month ahead of NPD reportings and it shows the Wii U holding strong at around 55k consoles sold this month. That beats out the Vita and the PS2, but still lags behind even the Wii. Remember these are just analysts predictions, as full numbers won’t be released until the end of the month. It’s also worth nothing that no console saw a positive tick in sales compared month-to-month, meaning the whole industry is in a decline for this month. Full sales predictions are below:
- 360 – 290,000 (-22%) / 330,000 (-11%)
- PS3 – 260,000 (-22) / 270,000 (-19%)
- 3DS – 190,000 (-16%) / 190,000 (-16%)
- DS – 85,000 (-20%) / 100,000 (-5%)
- Wii – 85,000 (-51%) / 80,000 (-54%)
- Wii U – 55,000 (n/a) / 65,000 (n/a)
- Vita – 42,500 (-80%) / 45,000 (n/a)
- PSP – 10,000 (-67%) / n/a (n/a)
- PS2 – 100 (-99%) / n/a (n/a)
- Total – 1,017,600 (-30%) / 1,080,000 (-26%)
Pachter said about the numbers:
“Last month… the only key hardware device to underperform our expectations was the Wii U, and its fortunes appear unlikely to improve for several months, even if Nintendo decides to drop price, as there are an insufficient number of core titles that are generating interest in the console.
“We think that core gamers are far more likely to turn their attention to the PS4 (due in the holiday season) and the next Xbox, which we believe will be unveiled before E3 and have a launch alongside that of the PS4, and believe that the long-term appeal of the Wii U will be severely limited by the perception that the PS4 and next Xbox will be much more powerful with greater online integration and multimedia functionality. Should the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft be price competitive, we think that Wii U sales may continue to stagnate.”
Pachter doesn’t mention the Nintendo E3 line-up which includes heavy hitting titles like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros, as well as other surprises. We expect the Wii U will probably do better than Pachter is letting on, but Nintendo does have an uphill battle on their hands.