"I don't know why Iwata is still employed": Pachter gloomy on Wii U's future

The Wii U's "underwhelming" performance has industry analyst Michael Pachter hedging bets on Nintendo for the coming generation.

Speaking at the Game Monetization USA Summit in San Francisco this week, as reported by GamesIndustry, Pachter said that while it's possible new games may turn the Wii U's fortunes around, he's not counting on it.

"I don't know why Iwata is still employed," he said of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, pointing to the company's failure to bring Nintendo content to other platforms in order to create new fans who might embrace the 3DS and Wii U.

The Wii U's lifetime sales will top out at around 30 million, he added.

The analyst had more love for Sony, predicting the PlayStation platform will thrive.

"The graphics are phenomenal, and the huge RAM makes future innovation likely," he said, also praising its CPU power.

The analyst is also keen on the Xbox One, although he expects a new model with a built in TV tuner, and believes Sony will pull ahead if Microsoft doesn't lower the price of the Xbox One.

Nevertheless, Pachter doesn't expect the console market to grow significantly in coming generations.

"I don't think you're ever going to see 500 million consoles out there," he said.