Ready for the Wii U? Nintendo acknowledges Wii sales have peaked

Whether you are ready or not, and sales show many are, the Wii U is set for a 2012 release.  For Nintendo, and many consumers, its release can't come soon enough as Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata acknowledged that Wii console sales have peaked, with worldwide lifetime sales just short of 95 million.

"I think that the market is now waiting for a new proposal for home consoles," Iwata said when speaking to investors during Nintendo's third quarter financial briefing.

"Along with effects from our trade marketing activities in December which mainly focused on the Nintendo 3DS, we were not able to sell the Wii as well as we usually do," he said.  He did point out that it wasn't only the Wii console that suffered in performance, but the entire home console market.

"However, not just the Wii, but the overall performance of home consoles in December was lower than the previous year," he added.  "Usually, the Wii enjoys high sales in December, but last year, even though The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was highly acclaimed, we were not able to expand it sufficiently to our target audience, and although the Wii was the platform which sold the most software in December, we were not able to propose new Nintendo titles to our broad audience."

"In Europe," Iwata continued, "it resulted that out of the home consoles, the Wii sold the most in December; however, we can see that the beginning of the year-end sales was slower and the peak was lower compared to that of the previous year."

Despite nonstop rumors of an Xbox 720 and PS4, Nintendo is currently the only company that actually has plans for a next-gen console.  Just yesterday it was confirmed that the Wii U will launch in all major markets by the end of 2012.

[CVG]