If you walk into any game store these days, you’re likely able to find a giant mountain of retro consoles like the NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64. But while all of those systems sold in excess of 30 million units, the Wii U’s install base is only 13.3 million… so it might be tough to find a used one in the future if you don’t already own it. And after last week, Nintendo won’t be making it any easier.
In an announcement on Nintendo Japan’s website, the consolemaker revealed that production of the Wii U is currently scheduled to end sometime in the near future.
Nintendo of America is also scaling back on their Wii U stock, telling IGN that every Wii U console they had available has already been shipped to stores:
“As recently posted by Nintendo on the Wii U website in Japan, Wii U production will end in the near future for the Japanese domestic market. We have nothing to announce in terms of exact timing.
We can confirm that as of today, all Wii U hardware that will be made available in the North American market for this fiscal year has already been shipped to our retail partners. We encourage anyone who wants Wii U to communicate with their preferred retail outlet to monitor availability.”
While it seems likely that the Wii U’s legacy will be its poor retail performance, the console was also home to some of the greatest games Nintendo has ever produced. Whatever the future holds for the Nintendo Switch, which will be released in March 2017, I’m sure every Wii U owner out there will hold on to its predecessor for many years to come.
