A statement from Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick may be indicating what the final verdict will be for the Wii U. In his quarterly conference call with the company's investors, Kotick expressed concern and some disappointment with Nintendo's Wii U's lack of popularity.
"As you know, we were somewhat disappointed with the launch of the Wii U," said Kotick. "I think it's a challenging environment this year, and one of the things we are concerned about is what the install base of hardware will be like for six-to-eleven year-olds."
That age group used to be Nintendo's specialty, but the Wii U sales have been flagging since its launch last year. The result for Activision Blizzard, the biggest video game distributor in the world, is disappointing returns on their release of Skylanders.
However, Kotick did express that he expects Skylanders to do well despite their struggles with the new console. "We have a lot of confidence in the franchise for the longerm. I think we're delivering another great product this year."
The Wii U launched in November of last year, but by the end of the holiday shopping season, Nintendo only sold 3 million units of the Wii U, disappointing investors when earnings were reported last month. According to CNet, Nintendo's chief Satoru Iwata has said he feels a "deep sense of responsibility for not being able to produce results for our year-end business."
Activision Blizzard may be disappointed with its Skylanders figures for Wii U, but they're doing just fine. It announced yesterday that they made $1.8 billion at the end of last year: $354 million of it in net profit.