Despite Nintendo having adamantly denied last week to Eurogamer that production of the Wii U was coming to a close, the company’s official Japanese website appears to have confirmed that very fact.
As reported by Kotaku, just two separate Wii U bundles are currently still in production (below) in Nintendo’s native country, the white, 32gb ‘Premium Set’ (right) and a Splatoon-themed set that contains the same model (left).
More importantly, the text underpinning both units reads 近日生産終了予定, or “production is scheduled to end soon,” with the bracketed text – 日本国内 – adding “within Japan.”
Considering the notice of an imminent cease of production comes via Nintendo’s own website, we can only assume the news is accurate, although it doesn’t explain why the company has spent the last week denying the end of the Wii U’s life.
To be clear, similar notices aren’t present in other territories, so it’s uncertain whether production is ending worldwide. We’ll just have to wait for an official word from Nintendo.
Either way, we won’t be particularly surprised if production is ceased completely. With the exception of next year’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, there’s little in the way of new game releases heading to the console, and with the Nintendo Switch now set to assume the title of Nintendo’s flagship hardware come March 2017, it was inevitable that Nintendo was going to retire the Wii U in the near future.