The Nintendo Wii U has failed to meet the expectations of Nintendo and has sold considerably very poorly, particularly in comparison to the success of its predecessor, the Wii. According to a report from Reuters, Nintendo acknowledges this and plans of discontinuing production on the Wii U by March 2018.
According to the report, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima himself confirmed that the console will cease production and that Nintendo will then be focusing solely on the upcoming NX. Rumors are already spreading that parts and accessories for the Wii U have already been discontinued and the company is merely producing with the available resources still left.
The NX, which is set to launch by March 2017, will replace the Wii U and is likely to dominate the market that the Wii U is targeting given that many Wii U games, such as the upcoming "Legend of Zelda," will be available for both the Wii U and the NX alike. This will make it easier for Wii U consumers to migrate to the NX over the coming years.
This report does contradict an earlier statement made by Japanese site Nikkei (via Polygon) that stated production on the Wii U may end as early as the end of this year.
While the console itself may continue production until 2018, this report may indicate that the individual parts will cease production this year, allowing the manufacturers to focus on building parts for the NX.
The NX will not be making a major presence during this year's E3 but some of the games that will launch for the NX, such as the aforementioned "Legend of Zelda," will be presented to showcase the NX's capabilities and to allow gamers to see what the next generation of Nintendo games can do.
As previously reported, Nintendo is also planning on ensuring that they will not sell the NX at a loss the same way they did with the Wii U, guaranteeing that each unit sold at launch leads to a profit. Each NX sold at launch will also come with a bevy of high-quality launch games instead of the usual fare of launching a console with low-quality demos and "shovelware."
