Everyone has been on the edge of their seats for the June NPD reports concerning the home console market. The two big contenders being spotlighted in the report are Nintendo and Microsoft. Why? Because Nintendo released at the end of May and everyone is curious what the sales tracking looked like throughout June. And Microsoft unveiled a $399 Kinect-less Xbox One SKU that would supposedly turn around the sales slump that the console has been suffering since earlier in the year. Well, for the Wii U we at least know that things are definitely looking up on the software front.
Nintendo Everything captured an image from the NeoGaf forums where the software revenue and unit sale comparisons were laid bare for all to see. Check it out below.
As you can see, the software unit sales for the Wii U has blasted up by 479% in the U.K., throughout the month of June. That’s an amazing feat for the little-console-that-could.
We can also see that the software revenue for the console has made a drastic shift compared to what it was at the exact same time last year. In fact, it went from barely £700,000 in June of 2013 up to £ 5.3 million pounds in 2014. The massive 643% uptick for Nintendo’s console in the U.K., has got to be a huge boost in confidence for the company.
A lot of this, it’s safe to say, is attributable to the launch of a very mainstream – which is also racking up quite the rep in the Happy Meal sector at McDonald’s – as well as a strong, focused showing at this past year’s E3 event.
Of course, July and August are going to be the real test for the Big ‘N’ because software releases are far and few between with a thin layer of support up until September arrives… over in the U.S., and U.K., of course.
Japan is a whole other story, as Nintendo seems to be doing extremely well over in the land of the rising sun, outpacing Sony and the PS4 in regular strides. Their biggest hurdle is getting the Wii U’s momentum to stay consistent in the Western hemisphere, as well as trying to win back over third-party support.
Maybe the one-two combo of and to close out the summer and start the fall will help give them the extra boost they need for the Wii U?
