Another US analyst has poured scorn on Nintendo’s Wii U and said that the opportunity for success will soon pass.
"After seven months on the market, Nintendo's Wii U is struggling mightily," Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz told investors, as reported by GameSpot.
“We note that the company has essentially abandoned the field to Microsoft and Sony at this year's E3 as Nintendo will not be holding a press conference."
"However, we do think there is a decent chance that Nintendo could announce a price cut for the Wii U at E3 in an effort to bring attention to the console and boost sales. We note that the console will have a series of key new games coming out through the late summer and fall, beginning with Pikmin 3 in August. Nintendo's window for igniting interest in its console is closing with Microsoft and Sony's competing machines soon to come to market."
There were words of warning for Sony and Microsoft, too.
Although Creutz reckons both will keep quiet about both hardware pricing and pre-owned plans, he thinks the second topic will have a direct effect on both console’s long-term prospects.
“We suspect they will avoid the issue as much as possible at E3, despite calls from the gaming community for clarity," he added. "Microsoft needs to make its case for the Xbox One to the core gaming community after its initial launch clearly focused on the broader audience for media and entertainment.
"While we think pursuing the mass market strategy is correct (Microsoft reputedly hopes to sell 400 million Xbox Ones during its lifetime, more than 2.5x the sales total of the PS2 and 4x that of the Wii), the console still needs to appeal to its core gamer constituency to get off to a good start and generate positive buzz. We suspect Microsoft will not disappoint in this respect.
"In contrast, Sony has focused its early message squarely on the gaming community. Sony's challenge at E3 is simply to reestablish relevance given the decisive lead Microsoft has built on current-gen (at least outside of Japan). We also expect Sony to showcase some of the non-gaming aspects of the console; however, the PS4 needs to not come off as 'me-too' relative to the Xbox One."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/creut...d-sony/0116707