Nintendo seemed to have things going its way leading up to the launch of its next-generation console and successor to the wildly popular Nintendo Wii, the new Wii U. It had beaten both Sony and Microsoft to market with its next-generation console offering. But when Nintendo launched the Wii U in the U.S. in November, it would be a major understatement to call sales disappointing.

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According to a new report that allegedly shows gaming console sales in January, Nintendo only sold between 45,000 and 59,000 Wii U units for the month. This number gives Nintendo's successor to the Wii the lowest sales in a single month since 2005, when stacked up against any of the current-generation gaming consoles, including Sony's Play Station 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 consoles. To compare sales of the original Wii in the same time period, Nintendo sold a staggering 436,000 in January 2007. This is a dramatic difference in sales for a gaming platform that will be the flagship console for the company and developers who have created games for the device for a number of years.

Nintendo was hoping the Wii U would capitalize on the Nintendo Wii's success. Nintendo would finally offer features it had been lacking compared to Sony and Microsoft's current offerings, especially HD gaming. Nintendo added a controller with the popular touchscreen, allowing a new way to play games and also a way to enjoy content on the mini-tablet Nintendo includes with the Wii U.

Even with all the new features Nintendo brought to its next-generation gaming platform, consumers are not finding a compelling enough reason to either upgrade from a Nintendo Wii or choose the system over Microsoft's Xbox 360, released in November 2005, or Sony's Playstation 3, released in November 2006. Sony and Microsoft will both launch next-generation gaming platforms this year, which certainly doesn't bode well for Nintendo and the Wii U.

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