Nintendo is to blame for poor Wii U sales, says Iwata

Low Wii U sales are the result of poor marketing and a failure to offer consumers software to showcase the system, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata told CNBC.

The troubled console launched last year; however, according to Iwata, Nintendo has yet to highlight to users the system's key features that make it unique.

"We are to blame," he said. "We relaxed our [marketing] efforts, so the consumers today still cannot understand what's so good and unique about the Wii U. Because we're always trying to be unique, it takes some energies on our side to [make] people understand the real attractions about whatever we are doing.

"We have been unsuccessful in coming up with one single software with which people can understand, ‘OK, this is really different.'"

Unlike its predecessor, Wii U has failed to offer buyers a single piece of software as integral to the system as Wii Sports was for the Wii, says Iwata. The executive emphasized that it plans to boost sales and lure back third-party developers by developing its own titles for Wii U this year. This, he says, is a better option than simply cutting the price of the console.

"Because from the very beginning we came up with a very aggressive price point. We do not think [a price cut] is a very easy option to take," Iwata said.

A number of third party developers have opted out of developing titles on Wii U since the consoles launch. While EA published several games for Wii U following its launch last November, the publisher confirmed that neither Madden NFL 25 nor FIFA 14 would launch on the system in the future due to poor sales in previous installments of each franchise on the console.