As Nintendo's next mysterious piece of
hardware, the NX, enjoys the spotlight, the company said it could halt
production of the Wii U by 2018, one year after the NX is supposed to
launch.
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima confirmed
the news to Reuters during a Q&A session, where he discussed the
Japanese gaming giant's previous fiscal year, upcoming releases and its
current consoles.
The news comes at the heels of previous reports that claimed Wii U production could halt as soon as 2016. Nintendo, however, denied the claim.
Given the Wii U's relatively poor performance in the market since its
launch in 2012, the news of its fade out shouldn't come as too much of a
surprise.
According to Nintendo's latest financial report,
the company predicts that it will sell 800,000 units of the Wii U in
2016 — a dramatic decrease from 2015's figures, when the company sold
3.26 million units.
Total Wii U sales is now hanging at 12.8
million units, lagging far behind rival consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox
One, and other Nintendo home consoles. Its predecessor — the Wii — sold
101.6 million units since its launch in 2006. The previous worst-selling
Nintendo home console, the Gamecube, sold 21.74 million units
worldwide.
"When the Wii U launched, no-one really understood what it was," research company IHS's director of games Pier Harding-Rolls told the BBC.
"The two-screen experience wasn't communicated well, so whatever they
are bringing to market this time has to be unique and communicated
clearly."
Focusing its production and developmental efforts on its latest console
rather the Wii also makes sense for the company in light of its recent
earnings announcement. Nintendo reported a whopping 24 billion yen
($216m, £147m) loss for the January to March period, bigger than the
loss it reported the previous year.
The new NX
console will be not be present at June's E3 in Los Angeles. Nintendo's
upcoming take on The Legend of Zelda will be the only playable game the
company presents at this year's E3. The game, which was expected to be
the console maker's major holiday release in 2016, has now been delayed
until 2017 to coincide with the NX launch.
Nintendo has been focusing on its mobile
efforts of late, including its first mobile app Miitomo, which has
garnered more than 10 million users so far. The company has also
announced that it is working on smartphone apps based on two of its most
popular titles — Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem — both of which are
slated for release in the fall.
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