Nintendo Japan announced Tuesday it will no longer produce the Wii, according to a statement on the company's website that simply said, "production over."
The Wii debuted in 2006 and has since sold over 100 million consoles, outperforming Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 according to Gamespot. It revolutionized the gaming industry by appealing to a more mainstream crowd and inspiring "news stories about Wii bowling games in nursing homes," according to The Verge.
Nintendo stopped producing new titles last year, Gamespot reported. The most successful game was Mario Kart Wii with 34 million copies sold.
The Wii also boasted revolutionary motion controls at the time of its conception, The Verge reported. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had big ideas for Wii, or "Revolution" as it was called in code by employees, before it hit stores in 2006. Most of them came true.
"Until now, within a single household, we've had family members who play video games and family members who don't play video games - and they've been very separate," Iwata said in 2005. "Gradually, the barriers between those two have gotten stronger. ... Today, if you don't understand the controller, you're not able to enjoy video games. ... We expect [the Revolution controller] to become the standard in video game controls."
No further explanation other than Nintendo's two word statement was given to explain the Wii's end. Most tech websites believe the company wishes to devote its time to developing new titles and promoting recent releases, like the new Super Mario Brothers.
Nintendo will also hope to increase sales for the sequel to the Wii, the Wii U. According to The Verge, the U vastly undersold predictions and Nintendo lost money because of it.
