The era of Wii — which initiated an embrace of gaming among casual audiences, revved up motion control tech, gave us those charming “Wii Would Like to Play” commercials, and offered a great slate of exclusives like the Super Mario Galaxy games and new Zelda titles — has come to a conclusion, according to a statement on the Nintendo Japan website. A page about the console, which Kotaku has translated from its original Japanese text, simply notes that “production ended.” While this currently applies to Japan alone, it’s believed that the cease in production may expand to other countries as well.
The Wii launched on November 19th, 2006 to a plethora of media attention. For many months, the console was notoriously difficult to find in stores, which only increased its demand. Through the years, the Wii was host to some alternate design colors, a full design revision, and many different bundles. As of today, Nintendo has sold over 100 million units worldwide.
We’ll miss the Wii, and offer our thanks to Nintendo for the wonderful memories — like many of their consoles, the Wii is laden with nostalgia, and was a significant player during that dawn of the seventh generation. And while the console was subjected to some backlash from the hardcore crowd, one would be foolish to disregard the impact it has had on the game industry and our culture at large.
No Comments