Nintendo will finally put an end to Wii U production on November 4, as a recent report has suggested. Citing “multiple sources,” Eurogamer has reported the following:
deadline for the final batch of Wii U consoles was October 31, and the Japanese production line will shut down once these have been fulfilled.
The Wii U was released back in November 2012 and from then till September 30 2016, it has sold out 13.36 million units. This is significantly lower than the hundred million figure Nintendo internally projected that the console would be selling. Even though Nintendo hasn’t officially announced that the Wii U production is ending, the timing does seem to make sense.
The company’s next console, Nintendo Switch, is scheduled to release next year in March. The unique console/hand-held hybrid was officially revealed to public on October 20 and Nintendo has further stated that it will announce the console’s price, it’s launch lineup, and it’s specifications on January 12. We can only speculate as there will be no further info on the Switch until then.
Nintendo has expressed their expectations of shipping 2 million Switch consoles just during its launch month of March 2017. So far, the only launch title that has been confirmed for console is the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Though current Wii U owners won’t be left out from playing it as it releases on the dying platform as well. However, a large part of the Switch reveal video included a number of other games that were briefly shown, including either brand new or updated versions of both Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon.
Apart from them, there was also this mysterious 3D Mario game, along with Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Nintendo did caution that the preview trailer only showecased “short glimpses of representative gameplay to demonstrate the liberating nature of the Nintendo Switch home gaming system“. As for its own part, Bethesda mentioned in response, “although Skyrim hasn’t been confirmed for Switch, it will support the console“.
[UPDATE/4:45 p.m] – Though several media houses had reported that Nintendo was halting production of Wii U by the end of this week but a company spokesperson has called them ‘not true’. Japanese site IT Media has received the following statement from a Nintendo spokesperson:
There is no change to our continuing [Wii U] production. Even though the Nintendo Switch is slated to go on sale, production is scheduled to continue.
The spokesperson further accepted that it isn’t aware of the complete details of the article by Eurogamer but clearly stated that the contents of the same were untrue. The company isn’t thinking about ending the production of Wii U and has upcoming titles planned for release, added the spokesperson.
This isn’t the first time, rumors of Nintendo killing the production of its under-performing Wii U have surface the interwebs. President Tatsumi Kimishima has previously stated that the company would greatly reduce the amount of Wii U systems produced and shipped. There has, however, never been a mention of a complete hault.
