Reggie: Wii U beating Xbox One in three-horse next-gen console race

Wii U is currently battling it out for first place in the next-gen console war, according to Nintendo America boss Reggie Fils-Aime.

The dirty little secret is if you look at life-to-date numbers, between Sony and Nintendo they’d be pretty close in terms of PS4 vs. Wii U, with Xbox coming in third place,” he told The Seattle Times.

I think it’s going to be a three-horse race for the balance of this cycle.”

As of April, Sony had sold 7m PS4s and Microsoft shipped 5m Xbox Ones. Meanwhile, Wii U has sold 6.17m units as of early May.

The thing to bear in mind, of course, is that those PS4 and Xbox One sales covered just five months of availability. Wii U sold that number in 17 months, with sales slowing to a crawl over the last year.

We think that the Wii U has a long and vibrant life in front of it,” Fils-Aime added. What it needs are games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros and Splatoon – those types of games that can really drive the installed base. We believe if we can do that effectively the Wii U has a long and robust life.”