Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has the answer to why the Wii U didn’t take off like the DS, 3DS, or Wii.
“This industry is all about content,” Fils-Aime said. “I can map out why the Wii took off at launch, it had two killer pieces at launch: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports. Look at our DS business. Our DS business was OK, but it was the launch of DS Lite, the launch of Nintendogs, the launch of the first New Super Mario Bros. where that system sort of dramatically took off.”
Fils-Aime said, “Once the software came that showcased the capabilities of the system, guess what happened? The hardware took off.”
The Wii U was launched in 2012 and it had very poor sales, but by the end of 2013 the sales in the hardware jumpstarted and has been going uphill ever since thanks to games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. Now with the new 3rd person shooter, Splatoon out and the new Star Fox game designed around the Wii U, hopefully Nintendo will continue to see a increase in sales.