The online arm of the prominent Japanese newspaper Nikkei Shinbun reported today that Nintendo is set to discontinue the production of the Wii U by the end of 2016.

According to Nikkei, the Wii U’s relatively sluggish sales aren’t expected to recover, so the house of Mario and Zelda will cease production early.

Reports from manufacturers also indicate that production of some of the components of the console has already been discontinued.

While Nintendo is expected to announce the NX this year, Nikkei does not specify whether it will be released before the end of 2016 or not, nor it gives any indication on when sales of Wii U consoles to customers will end.

Update: the Japanese site IT Media published a statement received from a Nintendo spokeswoman that mention that Nikkei’s report isn’t an announcement from the company, and that production will continue the next fiscal year and beyond. That said, this wouldn’t be the first time a Nikkei report is denied by Nintendo, and then proves accurate. We’ll probably have to wait until April 27th’s earnings conference call to see who is right here.

Posted: Mar 22, 2016 5:34 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://www.dualshockers.com/2016/03/22/nintendo-to-end-production-of-wii-u-this-year-nikkei-reports/