Smash Bros. Wii U pre-orders have surpassed Mario Kart 8's

Nintendo believes that the impending launch of Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U will have a "dramatic" effect on hardware sales, as pre-orders for the game have already surpassed the pre-order numbers for Mario Kart 8. When Mario Kart 8 launched on Wii U earlier this year, the console experienced a notable boost in hardware sales. With Smash Bros. pre-orders even higher than Mario Kart 8's, president Reggie Fils-Aime is expecting this holiday season to go rather well for the company. "The launch of Mario Kart 8 has essentially doubled our Wii U sales year-on-year," he told Bloomberg. "Our expectation is that the sell-through for Smash is going to be very strong, certainly on par with what we saw with Mario Kart 8. We think the impact on hardware will be similarly dramatic." "Consumers buy the hardware so they can play the software," he added. "When you have a robust library of games, that's when consumers jump in." The Nintendo 3DS version of the game has already helped boost the company's bottom line this year.