Wii U’s Days May Be Numbered

A Japanese newspaper claims Nintendo will drop production of the Wii U this year. Nintendo has responded with what may be a denial.

The report in Nikkei appears to be based on getting word from component manufacturers that they’ve stopped producing some of the parts used in the console. The plan seems to be to make just enough to keep up with current demand but avoid having too many unsold units when the next Nintendo console, codenamed the NX, goes on sale.

That seems to fit in with recent sales figures which had a drop that’s hard to explain as a sudden lack of interest and instead suggests stock levels are already being wound down.

To date, Nintendo’s only official word on the NX is that it will be unveiled at some point in 2016. If the Wii U story is correct, that may be a sign it’s planning to actually have the console on sale in time for Christmas.

While Nintendo has issued what’s being covered by many sources as a “denial” that may not be exactly the case. It gave a statement to a Japanese news site that Google Translate has as saying the Nikkei article was “not an announcement from the Company” which is nothing more than a statement of the obvious.

It added that it has “plans to continue even production next fiscal year and beyond” though some translations have it that it said “From the next quarter and thereafter as well, production is scheduled to continue.”

The latter translation at least is not incompatible with plans to end production by the end of the year. The former translation is more of a grey area: the next Nintendo fiscal year starts in just over a week, so on the face of it the company appears to be saying production will continue at least into April 2017.