So they have just passed 5 million but there expectations was for 13 million to be sold by the end of march 2014? So with 4 million sold up to March 2013 and with January to March being lean console selling months they have only really sold 1 million consoles plus a bit from April 2013 to March 2014 compared to their expectation of an additional 9 million being sold, an 8 million shortfall?

Really they have only sold 10-15% of what they expected to sell in that time period.

I never realised the situation was quite that bad.

So really the bulk of wii u owners are still early adopters, people who bought the console close to launch. Seems a bit like the Dreamcast where Sega fans bought the console in good numbers but post launch numbers were very low and never picked up. Sony has done to Nintendo what they did before to Sega which is make consumers hold out for superior hardware.

Still as long as I get to play brilliant Nintendo games I don't really care, except that I guess the wii u price is going to drop like a stone in the near future unless Mario kart is so good it performs miracle numbers at retail.

Also wouldn't Nintendo's numbers be shipment numbers rather than actual sales that reflect users. So of those numbers a certain percentage of units would be tied up at retail surely.

Also there are still some 8GB models at retail.

Makes me wonder if something like the Zelda special edition is simply reworking of existing stock. Simply putting a sticker onto the gamepad.

That also makes me think about all these special packages of wii u that are appearing. There seems a lot of special editions each having different bundled games. It almost seems like all these are reworked stock.

I wonder what operating system is installed on these consoles. If its an early version that would indicate Nintendo are re-packaging unsold stock.

Lets not forget Smash Brothers. I know Mario Kart sells better but I wonder if Smash Brothers might actually be a better console seller due to its competitive nature. I dont know the statistics or anything, but I know back when I was into competitive gaming around my college years, I  litterally knew tons of people who bought gamecube and wii for the sole purpose of Smash Brothers. Ive also talked to people who have told me they knew people that did the same.

In other words, I wonder how much of Brawl's 12 million sales actually sold consoles.

It would be funny if it turned out that this was the reason why Treyarch wasn't porting the Ghosts DLC to the Wii U. (that is, because they were too busy making CoD U)

I do think Nintendo has something left up their sleeve that they haven't announced. I don't think it'll get them to 9 million, but I could see it getting them a lot further than people have anticipated. The most plausible thing for them to have up their sleeves is a Mario x Sonic adventure/platformer title. That game alone would probably drive a huge surge of Wii U sales, if only because it's something that millions of people have been wanting ever since Sonic went multiplatform.

Nobody bought it on any system lol.

Great news for Nintendo, but its about 6 months late :P. I hope the next 5 million comes faster than 13 months.

Great news for Nintendo, but its about 6 months late :P. I hope the next 5 million comes faster than 13 months.

Congrats, wish another 5 million at the end of 2014.

Didn't Nintendo forecast 9 million units for FY2013-2014? Yet it's only reached 5million LTD?!

I really wonder what they were banking on when they made that prediction. I mean, Super Mario 3D World is an awesome game but did they really expect it to push that much hardware?

I really don't think a Mario X Sonic platformer would be that huge of a deal in 2014.  I mean, it will sell, but considering Sonic and Mario each just released platformers in the past month, I don't see this reaching out to a new fanbase.  Honestly, unless it was Mario Galaxy level quality, it would be a 3-4 million seller lifetime.  Good, but nothing to push sales to that crazy level.

Nintendo might be banking on Wii Fit U which COULD push consoles, yet I don't see any advertising for it to make that a reality.  They might have some big casual IP that they're going to launch in February or something.  Or, they might just have flat out mispredicted.

I expected 6M shipped by years end, think it might squeeze it.