Four years after launching the console back in 2012, Nintendo will reportedly end Wii U production for good on Friday, November 4th.
Earlier this year, rumors began to spread that the Wii U wouldn’t make it to 2017, but Nintendo dismissed the rumors and said it would continue to produce the console for months to come. Multiple sources informed Eurogamer on Tuesday that this was not the case, and that the age of the Wii U had come to an end.
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UPDATE: Nintendo has denied that Wii U production is ending this week.
According to Eurogamer, Nintendo’s production line will shut down once and for all this week after the last orders are filled. Those final orders came in on Monday, likely bringing Nintendo’s total Wii U shipments up to around 14 million units. To put that into context, Nintendo sold 101 million Wii consoles and Sony has already moved over 47 million PlayStation 4 units.
Following up on the success of the Wii was never going to be easy, but the Wii U was in trouble long before it was even unveiled. As I discussed in a recent piece, Nintendo didn’t seem to have a clear vision for what the Wii U was supposed to be, and it’s obvious that developers didn’t either, as its library remains paltry to this day.
With the Wii U in the rear-view mirror, Nintendo is now looking ahead to the launch of the Switch next March. Although there are still plenty of questions the company has yet to answer, the hybrid design and the wealth of third-party support should give some hope to both Nintendo and its faithful fans.
