Nintendo Discontinues Wii U Production in 2016

[Nz17]

The Nikkei newspaper has published a report that may shed light on Nintendo's console plans for the year.

According to the report (original story: Japanese text) and translated by Tokyo game consultant Serkan Toto, Nintendo would wind down production of the Wii U this year and may have already stopped production of some accessories.

The paper does not confirm that a replacement model for the Wii U would release this year, but it appears that it will be unveiled as Nintendo indicated previously. Wii U production was slowed for a time in 2014 due to high quantity of existing stock.

UPDATE 3/23: Nintendo has issued a response to the Nikkei report: "We plan to continue to sell the Wii U next year".

Oh, well, as long as you /plan to sell what you have left/, then somehow that means it is a no-news story, right? ;-)

(The correct answer is, "No, it's totally still a news story.")

This is making me all the more interested in NX and E3 2016...

Source: https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/...uction-in-2016

[Tanooki]

I hope it's right and Nintendo is blowing smoke as that WiiU is a festering wound that won't stop.

Though while not likely if the NX is using a touch based controller, screw them that's going from one bad idea to an even worse one.

[retroman]

Nintendo says that this article is false.

[Tanooki]

Of course they would even if it were true. Think about it. Would you want to tell the consumer 'we fucked up, we give up, and we are throwing you few buyers under the bus for something new.' If they admitted to it if it's true it would kill what few WiiU sales they do get from coming in because no one wants to pay for a machine in death row and they'd hold the cash back for the next one meaning their revenue trickle from the WiiU dries up sooner than it would.

Let's say it's true, and they kill production on 12/31/16. If they admitted to it, think of all the lost summer, fall and christmas sales that would be possible.

[FoxNtd]

If they admitted to it, think of all the lost summer, fall and christmas sales that would be possible.

Think of all the returns right after the new year of the WiiU xmas gifts when they find out they unloaded serious cash on a death-sentenced gift.

Historically NoJ happily overlaps last-gen with the latest although NoA always gets hellbent on shoving the newest console down everyone's throat and disliking any releases for an old console after the new one is launched. (The greatest example is FC support after SFC launched, compared to NES support after SNES. NoA's obsession to kill off old consoles was probably the only reason Sin & Punishment never came out on US N64. Smaller example but yeah point should be clear now.)

I expect NoJ to make Wii U games through 2017 at a minimum. If they give up on their own shit so fast the message is never trust them again with all the proprietary crap they make, with all the weird unique hardware and features. Why buy into it if the creator doesn't even want to? When they revealed 3DS would be region locked I stopped giving a fuck. I paid absolutely no attention to it and I have no idea what games ever came out for it. I didn't worry about it because I knew they'll pull some stupid shit in the near future after launching it with hardware revisions. The same thing they did with DS by making DSi and suddenly your expensive original or 2nd revision DS isn't 100% compatible with the entire DS line. They did exactly the same fucking stunt with 3DS now.

Whatever, it's FDS all over again. Short-lived system that has more than enough to justify owning it and having good fun with it. It's not like the Virtual Boy's degree of magnitude of failure here.

Maybe this is what needed to happen. Massive neglect of the system to force it into a pitiful corner of disgrace to wake them up, and motive NoJ to make something that plays more nicely in the field with their competition. They can still roll out cool unique ideas, like what the Wii U game pad can offer if used correctly, but still keep those ideas optional so it's not a horrendous pain in the ass to port MS/Sony console-targetted games to a Nintendo one, or vice versa for that matter. I think making Wii U closer to a "normal" console with regard to input was a big sign that this wiimote wiggling era needs to fuck off. Yes I know about the huge sales numbers the original Wii generated, but you've already monetised a niche of the market that you can only hit once. Time to go back to making games for actual gamers again.

[Tanooki]

Couldn't agree more especially with that last paragraph there about them needing a good punch to the cock to realize they fucked up badly, just as much as their quiet admitting that waggle play was stupid and not accepted except primarily non-gaming one off buyers who just wanted it for a thing or two for fun on occasion on the big tv with friends and family -- a path to death in selling consoles. Their problem was only half realizing they screwed up and doing more than twice the damage. To limit the price of the WiiU as they did for retail, then shoehorning what they could into the shell to keep price to them down caused them to yet again release a last generation box, still crippled by using tweaked (then awesome) Gamecube hardware that's a bitch to transfer code/assets from the other guys currently to there's and it's a disaster as we see.

I'm thinking since we see those stories about them going into android and then ios, the dena thing lining up with android, their new entire network including the my nintendo killing of club nintendo. Them basically creating NintendOS which apparantely they don't want to show off now because it's basically a re-skinned/hacked Android (in a way like FireOS on kindles) speaks to me they got something potentially right. I think they realized they can't compete with Sony and MS while also even worse so can't compete on their own to get back the Wii wagglers to buy more stupid unique hardware. The only play they have left would be to run up against the microconsole Android market. To make a system where you can 95% of it drag and drop the game from Android to NX and have it work will make them a supremely tempting system. Look at the high tier stuff that Nvidia Shield Console system gets that looks PS3+ in quality yet the system itself in either storage variety is cheap. Imagine a Nintendo NX box that can trump that, run anything it can, anything then just designed for it too and as it's known stuff on Android already isnt' too hard to carry between the other console systems as well reasonably speaking. It would be the right gateway IF and only IF third parties decide to finally be fair towards Nintendo for the first time since the first half of the Gamecube era (and before that SNES.) If it costs those shunners pennies to the dollar to drag and drop their beefiest Android games to the NX and they can go with download and physical releases, they'd be lined up to make serious bank IF the system sells far better than the WiiU ever did and the risk/expenses would be minimal versus trying to support the WiiU which needs lots of work to carry over stuff if it's possible.

That's why I haven't written off Nintendo entirely yet, the mystery inside of an enigma which is what we do and mostly don't know about that console/handheld tech they have brewing. If it's a console only I wouldn't be likely to buy it up front ever again, anything named wii has sullied my trust in them permanently on consoles. Now if it were a handheld, I don't give a damn about region locking enough to blow it off as I love the New3DS I have. In fairness it's now been 20 years since hte N64 popped up this year and about 20 years I've considered Nintendo my primary source of handheld gaming, not console, since they haven't gotten it right in all that time.

[Nz17]

The greatest example is FC support after SFC launched, compared to NES support after SNES. NoA's obsession to kill off old consoles was probably the only reason Sin & Punishment never came out on US N64.

That's why Tales of Phantasia showed up on the Super Famicom, but not the SNES. And that's why Rhythm Tengoku (Rhythm Heaven) showed up on the Japanese GBA but not the North American GBA.

...And that's why I got Tales of Phantasia's re-release on the North American GBA instead of the SNES, and why I imported the region-free Japanese Rhythm Tengoku GBA cartridge to play on my North American GBA. Too bad about all those times when we don't get any releases nor re-releases of a game, and those times when consoles are region-locked so you can't just import a copy of a "skipped over" game. Yet another reason why I am (slowly) learning Japanese: to get past all these "Not for you!" moments with anime, manga, and game releases.

[Tanooki]

Same reason we got screwed out of bit generations on the GBA too yet some of them made it to lame lesser quality wiiware downloads (like orbital and dialhex.) Probably could make somewhat of a case of Doshin the Giant on the Cube and N64, as well as Animal Crossing on N64 too and Cubivore where it was really born as well.

[Nz17]

Nintendo says that this article is false.

No, it didn't. Careful reading is required. Nikkei said that Nintendo is going to stop manufacturing the Wii U in 2016. Nintendo said it plans to continue selling the Wii U in 2016. These statements do not conflict.

[Niku-Sama]

Nikkei's track record is about on par with fox news accuracy.
eventually they are going to be right.

either way I couldn't see them not selling or stop producing wii u's this year. maybe slow production but not stop all together.

considering what we have seen so far with the "NX" I get the feeling if they stop anything it will probably be the 3ds. look at it. new Nintendo 3ds is one, a horrible name and two, nothing is being done about the fancy new abilities.
so far we have one title only working on new 3ds and another 2 or 3 that are able to run better in some way on a new 3ds. they came out with a new thing, didn't do any thing with it and kept doing stuff with the old thing. and the old thing has run its course and could use a replacement to stay on top much longer else something might come their way and take their lunch monies.

from what we have seen about the "NX" is that its a portable, or atleast the portable counterpart to this grand scheme with the home console still in the works

[megasdkirby]

I hope they reduce the price on the unit. Would be nice to have a backup. Price it at $199 and it will sell.

[Tanooki]

Well if you're comparing Nikkei to Fox News then they're actually pretty damn accurate as long as you don't get into politics, so like don't let your politics influence you. NZ17 is right, one said production, the other (Nintendo) said 'sales' so it is a game of dodge and word play. They very well could make 1M units of the thing between now and 12/31 and then just let the stupid things sell through. At the shitty pace they do sell I would not be surprised if that lasted them decently into 2017. Then it would be showing support while actually having already put the final nail in the coffin out of the publics eye.

Also Hyrule Warriors Legends on 3DS is almost non-functional it is so bad with drop out, poor response, piss poor frame rate and other problems. I think Nintendo just didn't want to scare off any non-researching suckers thinking it was a New 3DS game only but really it is their 2nd release meant for the device, just not locked to it is all. Personally I think that was a really cowardly stunt to pull given all the press being done how bad it is on the old hardware.

[Graham Mitchell]

This seems nuts because there's still some big 1st party stuff left to be released, like Starfox (which honestly looks kinda cool).

I'm sad. I've enjoyed by Wii U.

[Leo_A]

Me too, I'll be sad when the day comes that Nintendo discontinues it.

[Tanooki]

I'll agree it's sad, but it's also well deserved upon them, not the consumers who bought one.

I wasn't making up stuff a few years back when I was told by my brother how third parties came up with between businesses (leader in size) what they wanted in the next gen specs to get solid support and advance their games as they wanted. MS and Sony were on board, Nintendo went arrogant(again) after how the Wii went (you'd think they'd learn at some point) and said no, you support what we make within these specs and price point and that's that. And we got support on it from third parties of a decent level that lasted maybe a year and then it was under the bus tossing time. They I think learned their lesson perhaps this time given the things we do know they've changed, the generalized OS and style of system they're after now, and the networking partnerships and designs they've undertaken. I just wonder if it will be effective or too late, at least with the old guard as obviously android game makers won't be oozing immature butt hurt against them.

[Nz17]

Well remember, Nintendo is discontinuing production of the Wii U console this year partially due to the large amount of stock which it already has produced which hasn't yet sold through. This refers both to unsold inventory sitting in retail channels as well as unsold Wii U units which are held in Nintendo's warehouses.

Therefore while big name games like Zelda and Star Fox will sell many new Wii U consoles, there should still be plenty enough to go around throughout 2016 and 2017 and early 2018. I mean, we are talking about millions of Wii U units that already exist which will be joined this year by a ton more. So it might be "the end" for Wii U, but it will be a gradual end across several years. We're not talking about an abrupt end like with the Virtual Boy or Dreamcast.