It's been a slow start to life for the Wii U, with Nintendo's newest home console struggling to achieve the desired amount of sales. Speaking with CNBC, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata accepted responsibility for the platform holder's current predicament:
"We are to blame," he said in the interview. "We relaxed our [marketing] efforts, so the consumers today still cannot understand what's so good and unique about the Wii U. Because we're always trying to be unique, it takes some energies on our side to [make] people understand the real attractions about whatever we are doing."
"As long as people have hands-on [experience], they can appreciate the value of the Wii U, but because there's not software that's simple and obvious for people as 'Wii Sports' for the Wii, potential consumers do not feel like trying the Wii U. Our challenge today is with the software lineup we are introducing now, we have to encourage [people] to experience the Wii U in the first place."
Between launch and the end of April, Nintendo sold 3.45 million Wii U consoles, significantly less than their target of 5.5 million. Despite this shortfall, the company was still able to turn a small profit.