Haha… why?
Nintendo discontinued the Wii U in 2017 for what should be obvious reasons. And with the impending shut down of all online services for the console, you’d think things were done and dusted. It’d fade into the twilight, with mostly the retro community doing things like more efficiently hacking it and making sure as many of these boards lived into the future.
So imagine everyone’s surprise when it comes out that 1 (count ’em, one) brand spanking new Wii U was sold this year. And it’s apparently the first new Wii U sold in the US since 2022.
The news comes from Circana industry analyst Mat Piscatella, who said on Xitter:
The Wii U was not a popular console. And, more importantly, its library was fairly lacking in many ways; aside from a smattering of gems, most of which were ported to the Switch in the following years (I really hope they port Xenoblade Chronicles X someday), you’d be hard pressed to find many games worth the price of admission. And now, your only option is (likely secondhand) physical discs (because no sane person would sail the high seas), as Nintendo shut down the digital storefront earlier this year.
So, how did this happen? Well, according to Piscatella, the typical answer is that somebody found a random unit in the back and dusted it off. He also notes that random, one-off sales like this happen all the time, usually for that reason. While we, don’t know where this sale happened, it’s still a bit humorous to think someone saw Nintendo’s little console that couldn’t (in more ways than one) and thought, “I’m buying that!”
That said, there’s a lot that can be done with the console if you’re into the retro modding scene. So maybe it went to a good home, that’ll ensure its NAND is treated and its disc drive is preserved well. Hope springs eternal.
Source: Polygon
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