Will Nintendo pull the plug on the Wii U this year?

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There has been plenty of hearsay going on about the Wii U recently. According to a report from NIKKEI the Wii U’s first party support will be discontinued sometime this year. This has caused some concern with its consumer base. It was only a matter of time before another news site, IT Media NetLab, released an article regarding the report: according to a Nintendo spokesperson the report NIKKEI published is not based on an official statement from the parent company. The article continued to state that they (Nintendo) will “continue to support the system throughout the fiscal year and onward”. Even though Nintendo had responded either of them can be considered a possibility. In the worst-case scenario (if support is suddenly dropped), then there are going to be problems for Nintendo consumers, especially the Zelda fans.

Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma, showcasing some in-game gameplay from “The Legend of Zelda” for Wii U.

If the scenario of the Wii U being discontinued turn out to be true, then we’re going to see the Nintendo fan base in an uproar. To start off it wouldn’t make sense to pull the plug so soon after the success of Splatoon and Super Mario Maker. While being late in its life-cycle these games have helped the console to move back into the limelight among its competitors. Even so, what would hurt the company even more would be moving Zelda Wii U to the NX. Moving a project to another game console for particular reasons has been done before. In fact, this can be considered as a common practice. This is a different story. However, this particular Zelda title has been slated for a Wii U as they have stated in the E3 2014 Nintendo Direct. If the game is shelved for the next console when everyone purchased a Wii U for it, then Nintendo would have to answer to a lot of Zelda fans about this “bait & switch.”

But then there is the case that this discontinuation is merely a rumor. Because the NIKKEI article could just be speculations based on Nintendo’s public sales and financial reports. Again, Nintendo went on record (take the company’s word as you will) that their article was not based on an official statement. And the way I see it if this was really about the sales, there would have been at least some evidence of seeing the NX this year. Even more believable leaks (I shrugged that “controller leak” as a joke when I saw it) would support it. Personally, I think it’s too soon to cut off support just when the Wii U got its second wind this year. Despite the sales compared to Sony and Microsoft, things are looking up with recent titles coming out this year.

After the success of these games why would they stop the hype train?

Though to be fair it is hard to tell, which is more likely the truth. NIKKEI could be making predictions just based off Nintendo’s sales. Alternatively, Nintendo could have plans to discontinue the Wii U’s support soon. In any case, the only evidence for us to come to an accurate conclusion boils down to two things. The first of course being an official reveal of the NX. A new system usually indicates that the current one will be phased out soon so an official word on that might be a sign that the end is nigh. The second is just Nintendo coming out to say that they’re going to go through with it. However, I really doubt this will happen. Because there is just a handful of particular times that I can think of that we “might” get to see the end of the Wii U. And that would be at E3, before E3, later this year or after the release of Zelda Wii U. Again, we need more evidence to know when the home console will be retired.

With that being said, I suppose I should give my opinion about seeing the NX before E3 this year. I believe it is a possibility that Nintendo could come out of the blue and say, “You’ve heard about it, and here it is: The Nintendo NX (or whatever it will be called). However, if that were to happen. I think they would try to keep the Wii U alive as long as possible until the new system is ready for mass production and retail. To clarify what I said prior to this: while the NX’s reveal would be the sign of Wii U’s end. I don’t think they’ll drop it nigh-instantaneously. Nintendo has kept a couple of their systems going until the newest hotness came out while competing with SEGA back in the “Bit Wars.” Hell, even SEGA has done the same with the Genesis (Mega Drive for my fellow gamers in Europe) when the Saturn was on the way (even though that didn’t pan out that well). While we might see the NX soon I doubt they’ll suddenly drop the Wii U.

After his years of experience I doubt Tatsumi Kimishima would do something as foolish as this.

I can say that it won’t bode well for Nintendo if they do go with this year. I doubt they would, and outside of the recent success of Splatoon and Super Mario Maker along with future releases of Wii U games. I don’t think Nintendo would risk it, especially not due to the Treehouse pr-nightmare from hell. I doubt Nintendo would pull this stunt on their fans when they are already upset. So hopefully this is all just a rumor. After everything that happened so early in the first quarter, they need to ensure to their fans that everything will be fine.

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

David Lucas
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @GamerFoxem