"Production is scheduled to end soon." That's the new message showing up at Nintendo Japan's official Wii U site. It is, thus, the confirmation of the 'death' of the platform.
Rumours insisted for weeks that the manufacturing was to be stopped, but Nintendo denied this several times. However, figures and forecasts revealed just the opposite: the company was expecting to sell less than 250,000 consoles in the next six months, and the Wii U marketing and promotion ahead of Christmas was non-existant.
Wii U is leaving players too soon and with the tag of a failed product. It's the least sold home console from Nintendo, which comes in huge contrast to the most sold, its predecessor the Wii. But it also sports a brief but brilliant line-up of games such as Splatoon, Bayonetta 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles X.
It's also the system that pushed Nintendo to walk beyond its old-fashioned roots. Digital distribution, downloads, patches, full online features have been finally been adopted by a company that previously struggled to come to terms with these modern gaming staples.
Meanwhile, little is known about its successor, the Nintendo Switch. It was shown for the very first time a couple of weeks back with a brief trailer, and it'll be fully unveiled on January 13, 2017. It's different and unique in its own way, but it also shares some concepts first employed by Wii U. Will it be able to get the Nintendo players back?
What were your best memories of Wii U?