Here’s an interesting fact for you. Did you know that if the Wii U were to drop from the market in the same amount of time after launch as the Dreamcast, it would be discontinued this month? Knowing that information, it may surprise you to know that the Dreamcast had sold twice as many units in the same period of time.
That’s right, the Wii U currently stands at around 6 million units sold, while the Dreamcast was around 10.6 at its end of life. For comparison’s sake, the PS4 is already at 7 million units worldwide five months after launch. The Wii U has been out for 17 months.
So then, how is it the Wii U can keep itself on store shelves? The answer is simple: Nintendo is a much healthier company than SEGA was when it launched the Dreamcast. SEGA’s adventures with Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Nomad, and Sega Saturn would place it in desperate straits heading into the sixth generation of consoles. It simply couldn’t endure the hardship.
Similar to the Dreamcast, the Wii U isn’t a bad console by any stretch of the imagination. The GamePad has been an irrecoverable flop, but the software library is good enough that it wouldn’t be fair to call the console a complete failure.
