President of Nintendo America Reggie Fils-Aime has been making jibes at the PS4 and Xbox One, saying they are too similar and don't offer the kind of exclusives you get with a Wii U.
The gloves are off. Despite being a lot less successful than the Sony or Microsoft consoles, Fils-Aime suggests the Wii U is in a better position in terms of what it offers the average gamer.
"If you look at the other two competitive platforms, fundamentally, what's the difference?" said File-Aime in an interview with Recode.
"I'd much rather be where Nintendo is, with a differentiated platform, differentiated set-up experiences that we can provide uniquely to the consumer."
He suggested that the other two top consoles offer little to make them stand out on their own.
"Either by themselves doesn't have a lot of exclusive content. They have a lot of shared content. Look at it from the standpoint of, what don't they have? They don't have our games. They don't have Mario and Zelda."
Wii U's looking up
While the Wii U is not going to challenge the PS4 for worldwide sales figures any time soon, these bold words are well-timed.
A recent Nintendo earnings call revealed the six month period from April-September 2014 period saw Wii U sales double year-on-year. Actual sales were a relatively modest 1.1 million, but it's a dramatic improvement over the 460,000 units shifted in the same period in 2013.
We can't see this upswing continuing to the extent that the Wii U starts competing directly with the Xbox One and PS4 in terms of numbers, but the earnings call also revealed that Nintendo is back in the black once again.
After repeated reports over the last year or so that Nintendo is in dire straits, it earned a £82/$132 million profit over the last six-month period. Maybe Mario's not in as much danger as we thought.
