Nintendo has confirmed that it will no longer be able to repair your Wii U, marking the end of the latest chapter in the console's troubled life.
As described in a recent post on Nintendo’s official Japanese customer service Twitter account, which we’ve 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 see that you can no longer reserve a Wii U for repair. This announcement comes after the company discontinued production of the console in January 2017 and closed the Wii U eShop in March of last year, leaving 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 no doubt come as a surprise to the one person who bought a brand new Wii U in September 2023, which was news because it was the console's first official sale in over a year.
Originally released in November 2012, the Wii U has earned a reputation as one of Nintendo's biggest mistakes of all time. Not only was it panned by critics (our own Wii U review criticised the system's terrible GamePad, battery life and poor user interface), but it also proved hugely unpopular with consumers, who were largely put off by its high price tag.
That's not to say it didn't have some great games though, with popular series like Pun and Creator of Super Mario The beginning of life on the console. Thankfully, many of the best Wii U games live on in the form of full-fledged sequels or enhanced versions for its considerably superior successor, the Nintendo Switch.
