(www.nintendo.com)Nintendo Wii U

As several people have continued to regret their decision to purchase the Wii U console created by Nintendo, the company itself is quite happy with how it is performing in the market. In a recent statement, however, news emerged that the console is not going to continue on forever and will be discontinued in March 2018.

The news that the Wii U would be discontinued was picked up by Reuters, which stated that it was made public by Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima. He was speaking at an earnings briefing for the company and outlined how the sales of the console were not keeping up with that of the PlayStation 4, which is manufactured by Sony, and that of the Xbox 360 from Microsoft. Kimishima went on to add that in spite of this drop in sales of the Wii U, about 800,000 units are expected to ship this year. However, by March 2018, all production of the console will be stopped.

Even as the news that the Wii U console would be discontinued is lighting up the Internet, industry analysts are noting that Nintendo is making the most of the dwindling sales until the NX launches. The new NX console is importantly due to arrive in March 2017, but no specific date for its release has been announced so far.

Given that production on the Wii U is going to stop in 2017 one year after the Nintendo NX releases, it appears that the company is banking on the new console doing well, in spite of its performance and hardware still remaining under covers. However, in the meantime, game development for the Wii U has slowed and the "The Legend of Zelda" for Wii U, which was thought to be released this year has been postponed to next year. Also, the game is scheduled to arrive on the Nintendo NX, and industry analysts believe that this will cause many gamers to stop investing in the Wii U and instead wait for the new console.