Wii U a mistake Nintendo may never recover from, claims Pachter

Other industry experts less pessimistic on Nintendo's future.

Nintendo may be unable to recover from its Wii U mistake, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has told GamesBeat.

"I think they misfired on the Wii U," said Pachter. "It's just not that different from the other two [existing] consoles, and the gameplay isn't as unique as the Wii. They made a mistake, it's something they probably can't recover from."

Wii U sold only 55,000 units in January across the US, whilst Xbox 360 shifted 280,000 units.

According to Pachter even Nintendo's handheld business will struggle in the face of phones and tablets.

"I think they have made a costly mistake [with the Wii U]," said Pacther. "And their handheld business can't save them in the face of cannibalization from smartphones and tablets."

However, not all experts are so down on Nintendo's chances of recovering.

"Great games, unique to the platform, would be a very good start," Baird analyst Colin Sebastian told GamesBeat.

"Games, games, and more games," IDC research manager Lewis Ward told GamesBeat. "The relationship between key releases - primarily first-party titles - and hardware sales is especially clear in Nintendo's case. The sooner they get titles like Pikmin 3 and Wii Fit U on the console side and Pokémon games and titles like Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS side on store shelves, the better."

Wii U certainly faces an uphill battle, especially with much more powerful next generation systems from Sony and Microsoft expected to hit stores this year. Sony will announce its PlayStation 4 on Wednesday.

Source: GamesBeat