Nintendo has lost Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty on the Wii U. Third-party developers continue to abandon Nintendo's latest home console. But that's perfectly ok, because the tide is rapidly turning for the beleaguered platform holder and GameStop CEO Tony Bartel believes the Wii U can still be a hit.
Bartel's opinion on the longterm outlook for Wii U has been unwavering, and he reiterated it today during a call with GameStop investors. "Really what they needed was two things: they needed strong first-party titles, which we think that they are getting; and they also needed to do a better job of explaining exactly what the connected tablet--as we like to call it--how you actually use that. I think they are going to do a great job on both of those."
GameStop posted a 134% year-over-year increase in profits, propelled by record-setting sales of Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo's flagship racer has sold about 3 million copies globally and has driven hardware sales of Wii U). And it's fair to say that GameStop represents a good barometer for the industry at large.
Things began to shift decisively in the Wii U's favor after E3, where the company showed off a barrage of new first party titles which tend to be the bread and butter of any Nintendo console. Hyrule Warriors saw a healthy launch in Japan, and actually inflated Wii U sales to nearly triple that of PlayStation 4 sales.
Globally, Nintendo is looking at sales of 6.68 million Wii U consoles, and while that pales in comparison to the brisk sales of their previous console, a related set of numbers is promising: Wii U sales jumped 218 percent last quarter, and software sales saw a 297 percent surge during the same quarter. With Hyrule Warriors, Super Smash Bros., and an open world Zelda title on the way, Bartel is right to be optimistic.
