Wii U Production Could Cease Before the End of the Year

Despite boasting a number of games such as Smash Bros and Splatoon, the Wii U has struggled for sales throughout its lifespan, which could now be coming to an early end according to a report published in the Japanese newspaper Nikkei. Their article explains that Nintendo is planning to cease production of their current home console before the end of 2016, which may just be set to line up with the release of their upcoming console currently known as the NX.

When it launched in 2012, the Wii U had a one year advantage in release date compared to its competitors, Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. Despite this, the Wii U has only managed to sell 12.6 million units worldwide, a figure which is dwarfed by the PS4’s 36 million sales and predecessor, the Wii, shipping over 100 million systems between 2006 and 2013. The main issue that the Wii U faced was that it lagged behind its competitors in both graphical power, online capabilities and support from third-party developers. Added to this was scepticism over the usage of the tablet-like gamepad controller, with the only real advantage left for the Wii U was its lineup of quality games from Nintendo themselves, which clearly wasn’t enough to drive sales alone.

Despite its weakness in the home console department this generation, Nintendo’s handhelds are still going strong and Nintendo’s first foray into mobile development, Miitomo, saw the company’s stocks jump as it topped the Japanese app store’s free download charts.

There has been no word on how the end of production of the Wii U will affect its availability to retailers and no further word on the release of the NX has been given despite this news. Was the Wii U your favourite console this generation and are sad to see it go, or do you think Nintendo are doing the right thing to cut their losses and move on with the NX?