A single game purchase turns the loss Nintendo makes with each Wii U sold into an overall profit. So says Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, who in an interview with Mercury News played down how his company's latest system is selling for a loss at launch.

"The business model doesn't change dramatically," said Fils-Aime. "In that as soon as we get the consumer to buy one piece of software, then that entire transaction becomes profit positive. In the end, the business model is still to drive the install base of hardware, and then to drive a strong tie ratio with all of the other software and experiences for the consumer. And if we're able to do that, then we will create significant profit for the company."

The Wii U is doing a bit better than the 1:1 attach rate required for profit, at least based on reported GameStop pre-orders. The retailer says it took 1.2 million Wii U game pre-orders for 500,000 systems at launch, coming to an attach rate of 2.4 to 1.