Wii U Production Ending Friday
We all knew this day would come sooner than later and today we received not-so-official word that the Wii U game console has come to the end of the line. Well, the production line that is. We anticipate one more pre-Christmas push but this is pretty much a wrap for Nintendo’s troubled console. Eurogamer reports multiple sources have confirmed that the final Wii U unit will be built this Friday, on November 4th.
Needless to say, the Wii U has been a slow seller for Nintendo over the course of its production run.
The console has sold barely 13 million units since its debut in November, 2012. By contrast the GameCube sold 21 million during its life cycle, the N64 sold 32 million and the original Wii sold a whopping 101 million units. On the surface 13 million may seem pretty good but for Nintendo there is no question that is a disappointment.
When Engaget reached out for comment, Nintendo declined, stating that “We have nothing to announce on this topic.”
This isn’t that surprising given Nintendo’s big announcement regarding the Switch a couple of weeks ago. The internet blew up when an introductory video was released where Nintendo provided the first glimpse of its new home gaming system. Everyone seems to be pretty jazzed about Nintendo’s latest announcement. During Nintendo’s quarterly financial briefing held last week, CEO Tatsumi Kimishima did not provide further details on the newly unveiled Nintendo Switch, but he did mention that the company predicts to ship two million units in the console’s launch month (March 2017). Exciting stuff!