End of an era: Nintendo ends Wii production

Nintendo has officially ended the production of the Wii console in the only place where they are produced: Japan. A statement on Nintendo Japan’s website translates to “production ended”.

 

When the Wii was launched in late 2006, the gaming community was understandably unconvinced that the console would amount to anything more than a poorly-conceived fad. Its wacky name, gimmicky controller and outdated graphics initially didn’t win itself any fans in the “hardcore gamer” crowd. Despite the gripes of its detractors, however, the Wii has become one of this console generation’s most successful gaming systems. To date, it has sold over 100 million units all over the world, surpassing the unit sales of rival consoles Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, according to Eurogamer and Gamespot.

Innovative gaming
 

It has also proven to be one of the most innovative. Its introduction of the Wii Remote – a unique controller that recognizes movement in three dimensions – not only endeared itself to a plethora of fans; it also paved the way for other motion-detecting controllers, such as Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Playstation Move.

 

Nintendo ceased developing games for the Wii last year. As of June 30, 2013, over 872 million Wii games have been sold worldwide. 103 titles have sold more than a million copies each as of March 31, 2011. Some of these include New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. At 34.26 million units sold, the most popular non-bundled title, however, is everyone’s favorite racing game, Mario Kart Wii. On the other hand, the most successful game is Wii Sports. At 81.99 million units sold, (http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/sales/software/wii.html) it beats the original Super Mario Bros. as the best-selling game of all time. It is to be noted that this astonishing number is mostly due in part to the game being bundled with most Wii consoles.

Wii U: A worthy successor?

 

Though it is difficult to bid farewell to the beloved Wii, fans can console themselves with the fact that its successor, the Wii U, is completely backwards compatible. This means you can still play Wii greats such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the new system.

 

Sadly, the Wii U’s initial release was not met with the same commercial success as the Wii’s. Between April and June of this year, the hardware sold a paltry 160,000 units worldwide. 90,000 of these were in Japan, 60,000 in the USA, and 10,000 in Europe. As of June 30, the Wii U has only sold 3.61 million units worldwide, falling well below Nintendo’s expectations.

 

Last month, Nintendo lowered the retail price of the 32GB model of the console to $300. — TJD, GMA News