Nintendo America boss says Wii U isn't struggling

Wii U isn't struggling, according to Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime, who has said that the console has a long life ahead of it.

It follows word that Nintendo 64 games are coming to Wii U Virtual Console soon.

In a Kotaku interview, it was proposed that Wii U has been struggling to capture new owners, to which Fils-Aime replied, "I wouldn't use that word."

“We've been very clear that the number of games that we've launched essentially July through the end of last year," he continued, "a number of those games we had hoped they would be launch window games, everything from Pikmin to Wii Party U, we wanted all of that content to launch much sooner.

“Our belief is that software is what drives hardware and if that would have come earlier we might be having a different conversation. But the fact is we are where we are.”

Earlier this month it was revealed that the launch of Mario Kart 8 helped Wii U console sales quadruple, making it a system seller in the true sense of the term. It shows that the right software can indeed help gamers flock to a specific format, as Fils-Aime suggests.

When Kotaku asked Fils-Aime if the best option might be to ditch Wii U then start over quickly with something new, he replied, "No. And the reason I say that is because we believe the Wii U has a very long life ahead of it. It's got great content coming that will help define the platform.”

“There's been only one platform that has been anything close to the Wii level of long-term success,” he added. “Just look at home consoles. There aren't many home consoles that do north of 100m units.”

Back in May, it was revealed that some 6.17 million Wii U consoles had been sold - before Mario Kart 8 launched - and this places it ahead of Xbox one sales, which were 5 million at last official count, but behind Sony at 7 million.

Bear in mind that it's been a while since all firms updated their numbers so these may be different at the time of writing. It;s also worth noting that Wii U has been out a lot longer than both new-gen systems.

What do you make of Wii U? Is it struggling, or is it just waiting for more killer software?