November 10, 2016

In Japan, Nintendo Announces Wii U Production Is Ending

The text reads, (kinjitsu seisan shuuryou yotei), which means, “Production is scheduled to end soon.” After that, the announcement reads “within Japan” ;(or Nihon kokunai).

The pictured Wii U console is the white 32GB “Premium Set” console, which is the only console listed on the Japanese website’s Wii U hardware page. The other Wii U consoles, including the black variation, are listed as “no longer in production.” Last year, Nintendo killed off the 8GB Wii U in Japan.

In the past, Nintendo has often announced the discontinuation of hardware variations by similar notices on its official site.

Last week, Eurogamer reported that multiple sources confirmed to the site that the final Wii U would roll off the production line on November. At that time, Nintendo denied that report to a Japanese news site, stating, “There is no change to our continuing [Wii U] production.” The Nintendo spokesperson also added that the report that the Wii U was ending production “was not true.”

“Even though the Nintendo Switch is slated to go on sale, [Wii U] production is scheduled to continue,” the Nintendo spokesperson said at the time.

Scheduled to continue, that is, until sometime soon when it ends. Maybe Nintendo will launch another Wii U in Japan for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Or maybe that will be a Japanese Switch exclusive...

No word yet as to how this announcement impacts the Wii U in other regions. Kotaku has reached out to Nintendo for comment.

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