Nintendo halts Wii U repairs, citing a lack of spare parts

Nintendo has confirmed that it will no longer be able to repair your Wii U, marking the end of the final chapter in the console’s troubled life.

As outlined in a recent post to the official Japanese Nintendo customer service X / Twitter account, which we have machine translated, the company has reportedly “run out of parts necessary for repairs”. As a result, it “will no longer be accepting repairs for Wii U consoles and peripherals”.

If you navigate to the Nintendo customer support website in your region, you will now find that you are no longer able to book a Wii U for repair. This announcement comes after the company discontinued production of the console in January 2017 and then closed the Wii U eShop in March 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 - though it’s not entirely clear how long this will last.

The news will undoubtedly come as a shock to the one person who bought a brand new Wii U in September 2023, which made headlines as it was the first official sale of the console in over a year.

Originally released back in November 2012, the Wii U has earned a reputation as one of the biggest missteps in Nintendo's history. It was not only critically maligned (with our own Wii U review criticizing the terrible GamePad, battery life, and poor user interface) but also proved very unpopular with consumers who were largely unconvinced by its high price tag.

That’s not to say that it didn’t still have some great games, however, with popular series like Splatoon and Super Mario Maker starting life on the console. Luckily, many of the best Wii U games now live on through either full-blown sequels or enhanced ports to its considerably superior successor, the Nintendo Switch. 

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