Just when I was about to do research on the Nintendo Wii U because I was planning to get one for my folk's house over the holidays, sad news has bumped into me. The Nintendo Wii U has been reported to stop production this week; obviously sales will continue until they run out. Sad thing is the manufacture lifetime is quite short compared to other consoles, which would probably mean that its sales isn't doing quite well.
So as of this writing, I am wondering if I'd buy right away or wait for prices to drop further, being uncertain if the price would go up or down due to the stoppage of production. The console that has received less attention and less profit compared to its batch mates will have its last few days of creation and will end this Friday, Nov. 4, as reported by Polygon.
Why did Nintendo stop manufacturing Wii U's?
Eurogamer reports that only a "small number" of further orders were placed by retailers during the Oct. 31 deadline. This counts as the final new shipments to be sent out in stores. On top that, reports indicate that Wii U sales had a devastating 53% year-over-year decrease. Overall, it's safe to say that Nintendo has finally cut off production due to poor sales over the last 2 years and with the upcoming Switch, they may have had the idea to prepare the resources for it.
Will the Wii U's price increase or decrease?
As of this point, depends on people's interest on the console, I personally have seen classic NES consoles sold at ridiculous prices due to its collector's value. If the Wii U proves to be a collector's item, then I think it's time to secure one or several units today and invest on that - depends on your budget. It's practically a rule of supply and demand; if a certain distributor is still flooded with rotting Wii U's in their inventory then they would make certain steps to get rid of them, especially if new stocks of newer models arrive.
So to sum this up, you will need to look for an overstocked seller to get a bargain for a Wii U, on the other hand, if the reseller is smart enough, they would hoard the units and let them out a few years after the unit has stop production and roll out a 'collectors' sales strategy. And in extreme cases, if the Wii U proves to be obsolete, then it would sell so cheap until you can consider it as a retro device - probably takes a decade or so.
Did the manufacturing of Wii U stop because of the Nintendo Switch?
If you take out the status for sales, then yes. As stated above, I would speculate that Nintendo is making room for resources for the upcoming production demands of the Nintendo Switch. It's a smart move for Nintendo, just stop producing the Wii U and use the resources somewhere else, anyway the sales for it have gone ridiculously low. In another point of view, the Nintendo Switch promises to be part console, which is another good reason to drop the Wii U.
