Leaked numbers from NPD's latest report on US game hardware sales suggest consumers aren't scrambling for new systems from Sony and Nintendo. Numbers obtained and confirmed by sources in a position to know on gaming forum NeoGAF suggest the Wii U sold only 67,000 units in the US during the five weeks running from March 3 through April 6.
The leaked numbers continue a disappointing 2013 for Nintendo's newest system, which sold an estimated 50,000 US units in January and roughly 64,000 in February. This is after the system sold a decent 890,000 units during the 2012 holiday launch season last November and December.
For comparison, the Wii U is so far selling about 28 percent slower than the GameCube did in the five months after launching in November 2001, and about 50 percent slower than the Nintendo 64 and the original Wii did in their first five months. The Wii U is only about 10 percent behind the cumulative US sales numbers put up by the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 five months into their life cycles, however.
Nintendo has already scaled back worldwide sales projections for the Wii U by about 27 percent in January. The company also said in January that it wasn't planning on reducing the price of the system, which is already being sold at a loss. Nintendo is scheduled to publish its fiscal year earnings next week, so we'll know soon whether it continues to be as resolute in those projections and pricing plans.
Sony's PlayStation Vita, meanwhile, sold roughly 33,000 units in NPD's March report, according to leaked data. That's well (and expectedly) down from the over 200,000 units the system sold in the US just after its March launch last year. Sadly for Sony, though, the March numbers are relatively consistent with the system's post-launch performance, which has hovered around or below 50,000 US sales each month since last June (save for a temporary spike of 217,000 sales in November, following a flurry of October and November software releases).
The Vita has now sold just over a million units in the US in the 13 months since its launch. For a rough comparison, consider that the original PlayStation Portable sold over 1.12 million units in December 2005 alone, during its first holiday season. Sony has twice scaled back worldwide sales expectations for the Vita, yet shows only vague signs of plans to lower the hardware's price... in the US at least.
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