But the 3DS continues to perform well.

Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii U sold just 460,000 units worldwide in the six month period ending September 30, 2013.

The company's latest financial report reveals this quarter has been slightly better than the one before it; this time around Nintendo managed to sell roughly 300,000 Wii U consoles, as opposed to the 160,000 of last quarter.

Seeing as this quarter saw the company slash the cost of the console, alongside high profile releases including Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, it's not the most encouraging figure and hasn't helped Nintendo's profitability. Favourable exchange rates meant the company turned a small profit of ¥600 million ($6.1 million), which is still a marked improvement over the previous year's loss of ¥28 billion ($186 million).

While 6.3 million units of software were sold in the last six months, the company told investors, "The Wii U hardware still has a negative impact on Nintendo's profits." The loss was largely blamed on the price cuts in Europe and the US, with advertising and game development also significant factors.

Nintendo's target was to sell 9 million Wii U units by the end of the 2014 financial year(Editor's note: Nintendo's fiscal year ends in March 2014); a target which it now seems very unlikely to meet, seeing as lifetime sales of the console currently sit at 3.91 million units. Despite this, it's opted not to modify the target.

It hopes to hit the target by reducing the cost of hardware manufacturing and offering the console "at an affordable price by bundling software with the system". The company went on to highlight titles like Wii Party U and Super Mario 3D World, saying "we attempt to concentrate on proactively releasing key first-party titles towards the coming year in order to regain momentum for the platform."

While the future for the Wii U still looks uncertain, the 3DS is in a much more enviable position. Hardware sales for the 3DS family fell slightly for the period compared to last year but still managed to hit an impressive 3.89 million units, while software sales hit 27.38 million units, largely thanks to Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. Animal Crossing: New Leaf, meanwhile, sold 2.49 million units worldwide.

Nintendo expressed optimism over the 3DS continuing to perform despite the release of the 2DS, citing "extremely strong initial sales" of Pokemon X & Y as "further propelling the popularity of the system".

PS: For more on the matter (including some videos), which the website won't let me embed, see the link at IGN.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/30/wii-u-nintendo-sells-under-500000-in-six-months

"3DS continuing to perform despite the release of the 2DS"

umm the 2ds is a 3DS model

So... I guess the 3ds is basically canceling out the wiiU in terms of sales

lol not technically. They mean the 3DS itself is not selling less because of the release of the 2DS. Apple for exmaple is selling the iPad Mini and the original one. Yet a while back they talked about the sales of the Mini "canibalising'' the sales of the original one.

It's just official language in situations like this, that's all ;)

Yes but the 6 month is very artificial, it doesnt include all the windwaker sales, also not the wii party u or wii fit u

We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. This thread is about the sales of the last 6 months.

Wii u lol

Moderated - Kresnik.

"Nintendo's target was to sell 9 million Wii U units by the end of the 2014 financial year(Editor's note: Nintendo's fiscal year ends in March 2014); a target which it now seems very unlikely to meet, seeing as lifetime sales of the console currently sit at 3.91 million units. Despite this, it's opted not to modify the target."

No IGN, do your research SMH, 9m for the FY ending in March. Not 9m LTD by end of 2014 ...

Is it true Iwata still refuses to revise that 9m estimate?

I don't see why he would, they revised their first fiscal forecast easily enough. Nintendo are usually quite moderate with their projections, perhaps Iwata simply wants to keep investors's faith for the holiday season? Who knows. Not that they'll love him when he misses that target grossly either.