Nintendo isn't ready to abandon the Wii U any time soon, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said.

"I believe the Wii U business still has considerable room for growth, as a number of software titles that are compatible with the console are slated for release in 2015," Iwata told Nikkei.

Iwata also made comments to indicate Wii U has a better chance of changing its fortunes in the West than in Japan.

"The way Japanese gamers enjoy video games is different from their counterparts in the West. More and more Japanese gamers play on smartphones and 3DS hand-held devices. On the other hand, a majority of gamers in Europe and the US still connect their consoles to TVs and play them on a bigger screen. In the global video game market, game titles for consoles are still dominant, and that market is much larger," he explained.

Iwata's belief in the Wii U comes as industry analyst Michael Pachter told Game Informer that Nintendo is in denial about the platform.

"I think that they are still in denial about the Wii U failure," he said. "You keep seeing this stat so we're up 82 per cent - yeah, 40,000 units went to 70,000 units. Who cares? You're still trailing the other guys by a mile."

Pachter thinks Nintendo needs to abandon the Wii U and jump to a new, more competitive machine.

"They need a new console that's competitive with Xbox One and PlayStation 4. If Xbox can sell at $349 Nintendo could make it and sell for $249. They won't because they still live in that old console world where they think they need to make a profit on the hardware. That means if they make a competitive console it would be more expensive," he said.

Source: Nikkei