Nintendo Admits Wii U Failure, Slashes Forecast

Once the world leader in console gaming, Nintendo has taken a noticeable dive in the market, today admitting that its Wii U has been a failure.

The $300 handheld system launched in November 2012 as a follow-up to the successful Wii console, but it made little impact on consumers in its first year.

Nintendo initially blamed its poor Wii U sales (160,000 in 2013's second quarter) on a lack of exciting Wii U games. It saw a small boost in year-end sales with the release of "various compelling titles," Nintendo said, but even more family-friendly games and a drastic price markdown wasn't enough to reinvigorate the Wii U, which fell short of Nintendo's targeted recovery by what President Satoru Iwata called "a large margin."

"In particular, sales in the U.S. and European markets in which we entered the year-end sales season with a hardware markdown were significantly lower than our original forecasts, with both hardware and software sales experiencing a huge gap from their targets," Iwata said during a Friday press conference.

:story: PC Magazine