Nintendo of Japan recently announced that the Wii’s long production run has ended. The console has been one of Nintendo‘s most successful, and made motion gaming viable with its Wii remote controls. Nintendo‘s focusing on its current console the Wii U. So now we must sadly bid the Wii adieu.
The Wii released back in 2006, the successor to Nintendo’s under performing Gamecube. It focused on the gameplay experience instead of raw graphical power. The hardware was only a minor upgrade from the consoles of the time, but it added revolutionary motion controls with the Wii remote (or “Wiimote, as most people call it).
Skeptics decried the console, calling it a failure before it even released. But the motion control caught on, and customers loved to waggle. Nintendo brought its classic franchises to the console too, resulting in some of the best iterations of its properties in years. The Wii sometimes had a hard time landing quality 3rd party titles, but the quality coming from in-house developers was always top-notch.
The Wii’s had a long life and it makes sense for Nintendo to focus on the Wii U. Nintendo’s latest console has struggled with sales, but its profits were up 200% last month!
If you don’t have a Wii, it’s a great time to buy, and snatch up all its greatest games. With the console going for only 50 bucks at Gamestop, you can grab one on the cheap. Given its massive success, there won’t be any shortage of used Wiis around for a long time!
[Via: Kotaku]