Wii U needs games badly!

It goes without saying that the Wii U hasn't been the success Nintendo had hoped for, with just under 10 million total hardware sales since launch - that's around half the amount of systems that Sony has shifted, and the PS4 is a year younger than Nintendo's machine.

With the recent announcement of Nintendo NX - the company's next console - it's tempting to conclude that Nintendo is slowly withdrawing support for the Wii U, and that's exactly what VentureBeat Insight's Stewart Rogers believes.

Rogers has spotted a trend when it comes to software releases that he feels indicates the console is being wound down:

While the Wii U has around 380 console exclusive titles, the majority were launched 2013. Fewer exclusives were made available in 2014. In this respect, the Wii U is on the wrong side of the bell curve and Nintendo appear to have been winding it down already.

There are other hints to take into account, VentureBeat argues. Zelda has been "strategically delayed" so that it's ready for a dual-release on both Wii U and NX - a tactic Nintendo previously employed with Twilight Princess, which was originally a GameCube exclusive but was delayed so that a Wii edition could also be released at that console's launch.

The lack of Wii U announcements during the recent Nintendo Direct is also sited as evidence of the Wii U's forthcoming demise, as is the confirmation that Nintendo is making games for smartphones - a piece of news which, VentureBeat argues, is designed to distract us from the Wii U's current woes.

What do you think about these theories, and VentureBeat's assertion that the Wii U is being abandoned by its creator? We still have Splatoon, Star Fox, Mario Maker and Xenoblade Chronicles X to look forward to, and there are sure to be more Wii U announcements at E3. Is the Wii U really on its deathbed, or could it have a successful 2015 in terms of software and defy expectations? As ever, we want to know what you think.

[source venturebeat.com]