Shortly after Japan business daily Nikkei reported that Nintendo plans on ending the Wii U production sometime this year, the Kyoto-based video game company claimed otherwise. The company's spokesperson told a local media site about its plans to continue the Wii U production in the next quarter and thereafter.
Nikkei reported Wednesday that the declining popularity of Wii U against its predecessor and the difficulty of producing games for the console due to its unique nature are the major reasons behind Nintendo's decision to end the Wii U's production. The paper also found out that the companies that manufactured Wii U parts had ceased production on some components.
"This [Nikkei article] isn't an announcement from our company," a Nintendo spokesperson told Japanese site IT Media via Kotaku. "From the next quarter and thereafter as well, production [of the Wii U] is scheduled to continue (sic)."
In light of Nikkei's report, ARS Technica pointed out the shortage of Wii U supplies in recent months, which substantiated the publication's claim. ARS Technica linked to Nintendo World Report story from last month, which reported that there was a significant sales drop in Japan from December last year through February. Nintendo had sold 250,000 Wii U consoles in December last year, which dropped to 40,000 consoles in January 2016 and then 4,000 units until the first week of February.
Nintendo Wii U was launched in November 2012 and has sold 12 million consoles around the world, whereas the Wii was the company's best seller with over 100 million units. If the report had been true, Wii U would be the shortest-lived game console with just four years of life span. Nintendo's original Famicom system was live for 20 years, while the Wii console was kept alive for seven years.
Rumours about upcoming Nintendo NX have been making the rounds for quite some time now. An investor report by Foxconn leaked on NeoGAF earlier this month revealed that the Nintendo NX would enter production in June 2016. Rumours have suggested the NX console to come with a wireless HDMI dongle, Bluetooth sync to connect smartphones and other mobile devices and use tech similar to Xbox One and PS4.
The exact launch date of Nintendo NX is still unknown.
