Nintendo Denies It Is Halting Wii U Production

Respected Japanese magazine Nikkei reported that Nintendo will soon cease production of the Wii U console, a report that Nintendo denies.

While the Wii U remains a strong selling platform in its home country, outside of Japan it has struggled to find an audience. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the US, where the Wii U has only just crested 5 million units on the back of the relatively successful Splatoon and Super Mario Maker. Worldwide, it’s only managed a little over 12 million units versus the original Wii’s 100 million.

It came as no surprise when Nikkei published a small article suggesting that Nintendo would cease production of the console on its way to unveiling the new Nintendo NX console later in 2016. However, it appears that Nikkei’s source may have been mistaken.

Within hours, Nintendo spoke out against the report, claiming that production would continue through this and perhaps even the next year, despite the advent of its next major hardware iteration. Their phrasing was a bit cagey, however. They prefaced the statement by merely stating that Nikkei’s report was “not an announcement by the company,” and the continued production was qualified as “plans” for the future. It’s only slightly less than an outright denial, but it’s enough to leave questions hanging in the air.

Meanwhile, the widely speculated-upon Nintendo NX is almost sure to debut some time in 2016. So far, the company has been typically tight-lipped on the console, but TechRadar has compiled a list of the tidbits gleaned so far. Whatever it is, Nintendo is no doubt counting on it to rebound from its worst selling console since the Virtual Boy.

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