The Wii U has been out for almost two years now, and sales of the console have been quite disappointing. Because of the low sales, we haven’t seen much support from third party publishers. And while Nintendo’s own first games have been quite successful on the Wii U, there has yet to be a big third party hit on the console.
But it looks like there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Last week, Nintendo announced in their quarterly earnings that they company finally made a profit for the first time in many quarters. And they also revealed that the Wii U had sold 7.3 million consoles to date. (By comparison, The PlayStation 4 has been out for just one year, and it has sold over 13 million units.)
Nintendo made a profit of $224 million last quarter, largely thanks to Super Smash Bros on the 3DS and the success of Mario Kart 8 (which has sold almost 3.5 million units). The Wii U sold 600,000 units during the quarter, which is an improvement over last year.
Overall, it looks like the Wii U is finally bouncing back after a long slump, mainly thanks to Nintendo’s own first party titles. With Super Smash Bros coming out on the Wii U later this month (and Bayonetta 2 just released), it will no doubt provide another boost for the company. The Wii U has been losing money for Nintendo for almost two straight years, and now it looks like the console is at least breaking even.
The good news isn’t that Wii U sales are up, the good news is that Nintendo is finally making a profit as a company. Which means that the Wii U isn’t the money shredder it once used to be. And of course, there’s the 3DS, which has now turned into a regular cash cow for Nintendo after a disappointing start. Hopefully Nintendo can turn the Wii U around the way they did with the 3DS.
Overall, the latest quarterly earnings are a good sign for Nintendo and for the Wii U. Hopefully the trend continues.
