Nintendo Blames Itself Dire Wii U Sales

In a bid to maintain at least some third-party support for its ailing Wii U console, Nintendo has blamed itself for the terrible - 160,000 worldwide - sales figures of the hardware in its recent first quarter earnings reports.

"The worldwide sales of Wii U hardware and software were 0.16 million units and 1.03 million units respectively (are) mainly due to the release of few key first-party titles this quarter to strongly drive the hardware sales," is its bald statement to analysts and stock holders. It continues to detail its operating losses:

"The operating loss was 4.9 billion yen because total selling, general and administrative expenses exceeded gross profit due to enhancement of advertising and promotion of Nintendo 3DS overseas to increase sales, and research and development for the Wii U software."

As usual in recent times, exchange rates also come into play, "As a result of exchange gains totaling 16.9 billion yen due to depreciation of the yen at the end of this quarter, ordinary income was 14.8 billion yen and net income was 8.6 billion yen."

These first-party (aka Selfie) problems march sluggishly hand-in-hand with the kind of third-party complaints of Wii U unprofitability made recently by Ubisoft and even disastrous retail decisions that have seen the console withdrawn from sale.

Source: Nintendo