Wii U sales are 'not bad,' says Iwata

While holiday sales of the Wii U console were not as high as those seen during the initial launch of the Wii in 2006, "sales are not bad," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told Reuters.

"At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn't as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock, as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom. But sales are not bad, and I feel it's selling steadily," said Iwata.

According to Iwata, the release of two Wii U models was a "challenge," as this was the first time the company had offered two models simultaneously.

"It was the first time Nintendo released two models of the game console at the same time," he said, "and I believe there was a challenge with balancing this. Specifically, inventory levels for the premium, deluxe package was unbalanced as many people wanted that version and couldn't find it."

In October, Nintendo announced its aim to sell 5.5 million units of the new console by the end of March 2013. The company later stated 400,000 Wii U consoles sold within its launch week starting Nov. 18 in North America. Between Dec. 8 and Dec. 30, Nintendo sold 638,339 units in Japan, according to publisher Enterbrain. Since the release of the Wii in 2006, Nintendo sold almost 100 million units of the original console.