Four years after it went on sale, Nintendo's Wii U is apparently approaching the end of its production run, making way for the company's next-generation console, which will launch next year.
The Wii U originally went on sale in November 2012, but by all accounts, the console was a sales flop. Even in the first months after its launch, it was clear that the Wii U wasn't appealing to gamers as Nintendo hoped it would, prompting the company to slash its sales forecast for its 2013 fiscal year from 9 million units to just 2.8 million.
According to Eurogamer, citing confirmed information from multiple sources, Nintendo will shut down its Wii U production line at the end of this week, following a long run of weak sales. As of one month ago, Nintendo had shipped a total of 13.36 million Wii U consoles, and it's believed that the company has remaining inventory of around 250,000 more units. By comparison, Nintendo sold 101 million of its much-loved first-generation Wii consoles.
In March, a report claimed that Nintendo was planning to terminate Wii U production before the end of this year. However, the company insisted that production would continue "beyond the next fiscal year", which ends on March 31, 2017.
Last month, Nintendo unveiled its new Switch console, which can be played on the go, or connected to a TV via a docking station. The Switch is expected to launch in March, with further details due to be revealed at an event on January 12.
Source: Eurogamer
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