Nintendo has confirmed that it can no longer repair the Wii U, bringing an end to the latest chapter in the console’s troubled history.
As explained in a recent post According to the official Japanese Nintendo Customer Service X/Twitter account, which we machine-translated, the company has reportedly “run out of parts needed for repairs.” As a result, it “will no longer accept repairs for Wii U consoles and peripherals.”
If you navigate to Nintendo’s customer support website for your region, you’ll now see that you can no longer book a Wii U in for repair. This announcement comes after the company ceased production of the console in January 2017 and subsequently closed the Wii U eShop in March of last year, leaving any remaining owners unable to purchase new games. Thankfully, you can still download titles from your existing game library and receive software updates – although it’s not entirely clear how long this will last.
The news will undoubtedly come as a shock to anyone who bought a brand new Wii U in September 2023. The purchase made headlines because it was the first official sale of the console in over a year.
Originally released in November 2012, the Wii U has developed a reputation as one of the biggest missteps in Nintendo’s history. Not only was it critically panned (with our own Wii U review criticising the game’s awful GamePad, battery life, and poor UI), it also proved massively unpopular with consumers, who were largely unconvinced by its hefty price tag.
That’s not to say there weren’t any more great games, with popular series like Splatoon And Super Mario Maker life began on the console. Thankfully, many of the Wii U’s best games now live on through full sequels or improved ports to its vastly superior successor, the Nintendo Switch.