Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be the last spectacle in the short Wii U cavalcade, following the console's abrupt, if inevitable discontinuation
The Wii U was yanked out of the production line this past November because of dismal sales. Its failure to corner a sizable chunk of the console market owes to a number of factors, one in particular is its borrowed brand from the Wii. Instead of being perceived as a successor, many thought of it as a mere accessory to the Wii, Nintendo's successful motion control home console.
The Wii U Library Comes To A Close
While it's confirmed to be dead on its tracks, the Wii U's four-year occupancy in the market brought out worthy titles, particularly first-party ones. Super Mario 3D World, Remastered Legend of Zelda titles, Pikmin 3, and Mario Kart 8 being a few good examples.
Nintendo has now confirmed that Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be the last title the company will release for the Wii U.
"From a first-party standpoint, there's no new development coming after the launch of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's President, told Polygon during a Switch event Friday. "We really are at the end of life for Wii U."
That doesn't mean the end for the Wii U library entirely, of course. It just means Nintendo won't be producing any more titles for the system after Breath of the Wild. Third-party developers may still create games for the system, but that prospect is extremely unlikely — if Nintendo itself has given up on the system, why wouldn't other developers?
Wii U games will still be sold at retail stores and software will still be available on the eShop. The company hasn't commenced discussion on whether it'll also pull online services, such as multiplayer, for the console. By contrast, the DS and Wii U's online services, called the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, had its boat punted into the sunset May 2014, years after the DS and Wii's popularity waned.
"From [Nintendo's] standpoint, sunsetting is quite some time into the future. The ongoing activity from an online standpoint on [Mario] Kart and Splatoon is significant. We're going to continue to support that," Fils-Aime said.
Only 13.36 million Wii U consoles have been sold to date, as per Nintendo's financial highlights (PDF).
Learning From The Wii U
The Wii U has given Nintendo lessons aplenty in time for the launch of the Switch, its brand-new hybrid console. Late October, Nintendo dropped the system's trailer to enormous fanfare, and on Jan. 12 it revealed key details about the system. Preorders for the system have sold out.
Fils-Aime said that Nintendo has learned that it needs to know exactly what its product is — and by extension, what players will think of it.
When he asks people what the Wii U is, Fils-Aime says he still "[gets] a wide variety of responses."
"In managing the business, that's just not good," he said.
The Nintendo Switch comes out March 3 for $299. For the first time in Nintendo's history, it'll launch a paid tier for the Switch's online services. It will run on a trial period until fall, at which point Nintendo will start charging for the services.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild comes out March 3 for the Wii U and the Switch.
Any Wii U memories you'd like to share? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
