Nintendo Confirms That It Is Ending Wii U Production Soon

Nintendo has confirmed plans that the hardware production of the Wii U is scheduled to end soon in Japan. The announcement comes after months of speculations and rumors on the future of the Wii U as Nintendo prepares to launch its next console, the Switch.

On Nintendo’s Japanese website, a picture of the Wii U is shown with caption: “production is scheduled to end soon,” as originally spotted by Kotaku. The caption also states that the halt in production is limited only to Japan. As of now, the only version of the Wii U that’s available to purchase from Nintendo’s website is the 32GB Premium Set, while other variants, including the black Wii U, are listed as being no longer in production.

“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,” a Nintendo representative said in a statement sent to IGN. “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.”

The news comes just a week after Nintendo denied rumors that the production of the Wii U was ending. Multiple sources indicated that the gaming firm was shutting down production of the Wii U last Friday only to fulfill remaining retail shipments for the month of November, according to Eurogamer.

A Nintendo spokesperson denied the report to IT Media, stating that there was no plans on changing its continuing Wii U production and that the report from Eurogamer “was not true.” The spokesperson added that Wii U production was “scheduled to continue” even with the Nintendo Switch going on sale soon.

With Nintendo finally confirming plans of shutting down Wii U production, it remains unclear how this will impact other regions and upcoming games. “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” is supposed to be available for both the Wii U and the Switch, but now it’s looking more likely to be a Nintendo Switch-exclusive.