Last year in May, Nintendo's Japanese support service revealed it would be ending repairs for the Wii U when its current parts inventory ran out. Now, in an update just over a year later on its website, it's announced the service for this system (originally released in 2012) has officially ended.
Here's a rough translation, explaining how it's run out of the replacement parts necessary to repair consoles - with the company now no longer accepting repairs this week as of 3rd July 2024. This includes Wii U peripherals. You can see on Nintendo's official website the many other systems it's no longer accepting repairs for, which covers its past-generation products.
Nintendo: "We have run out of parts necessary for repairs, so as of July 3, 2024, we will no longer be accepting repairs for Wii U consoles and peripherals."
Nintendo called time on its Wii U repair service in North America and elsewhere years ago, so nothing has changed locally. This follows the Japanese video game giant also shutting down the online servers for the Wii U (as well as the 3DS) earlier this year, marking the end of both of these generations.
According to Nintendo's official data, the Wii U sold just over 13 million units and surpassed 100 million software sales.
Do you have a Wii U? Does it still work? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 52
its happening, wii u is officially an endangered species now
My Wii U is still working fine despite I rarely used it after I have more games on PS3, PS4 & PS5.
I still haven't changed the body color into white color since year 2016 as I got Black color 32 GB Bundle with Mario Kart 8 and I don't like Black color for consoles / handhelds.
@boxyguy
Wii U is an animal species? LOL
Wii will no longer accept be accepting repairs for U.
Okay, jokes aside, I believe the Wii U had its good run even if it didn't sell very well.
I have always kept my Wii U plugged in, but I am nervous with all these reports of people having their Wii U crash and end up losing everything. I spent a lot of money on the Virtual Console because of all the great titles it had.
Welp I've got a third wiiu as a backup and recently replaced the gamepad screens on my two mains. I may hit up ebay to get a second JPN WiiU as a second backup. Here’s hoping for the best.
@LinktotheFuture Could you mod your console and keep regular backups just in case yours stops working? Theoretically, I don’t know for sure because I’ve never modded a console, but you could take those backups and legally play the games on an emulator as a last resort? Just a thought/guess.
My Wii U don't need no repairs, it's not a Nintendo switch!
@AccessibleDaydream I have never modded anything, and I don't want to screw anything up. I bought my Wii U at launch, so I am hoping I got one with the good chips.
12 years support for a games console who's life wasn't exactly brilliant? Hats off to Nintendo, there aren't many companies that do this at all now. Sony only give everyone 1 year support, not 12!
He’s dead Jim! (I’m fine with this.)
Given birth only to be told that it's a failure, despite its brilliance outshining most of their successful peers, finally left with no care. What a pitiful sight, its parent is.
@themightyant I am now sad that @JimNorman didn't write this one.
@LinktotheFuture i just modded mine last night and i gotta say it was pretty dang easy, if not easier than 3ds modding
man, seeing the wii u slide further and further out of relevancy (despite the fact that it was barely relevant in the first place LOL) is really messing with my sense of time. Feels like yesterday i opened my brand-new wii u and experienced gamepad bliss
@Ryu_Niiyama Me too, have have 3 Wii U's now. Only one plugged in however, I need to get the other two backups plugged in I guess.
Wii don’t miss around these parts.
@AccessibleDaydream if memory serves rightly I believe you should, not sure about all the technical know-hows but irregardless, Wii U emulation has come a long way.
@Ryu_Niiyama so it’s not just me who likes having múltiples of the same hardware as backup.
This is actually quite sad. Saying that, I've got a sealed back up Wii U in case my launch day unit gives up the ghost. Can never be too careful.
@Jack_Goetz Ditto, actually. Although it's a Lego City one, so it won't have up to date firmware. That might even be before the speed increase update!
Pleasantly surprised the support lasted this long at least in Japan.
As much as I prefer my Switch and despite not playing it these days I still love my Wii U and hope it will last for a while (when I can I'll mod it just like my 3DS as that could be useful also for that other than finally getting rid of region lock, playing mods and so on)!
R.I.P. Wii U. No pity for you.
Mine is fine, could be due to the fact that it was almost never used after the Switch came out. The games were amazing but the gamepad thing really was more of a novelty than anything else. Still, I think if the WiiU hadn’t flopped the Switch would have not become the outstanding console it is.
I am shocked that repairs for the Wii U has lasted this long, but to be fair, there are not that many Wii U's out there and they are built to last using the classic Nintendium.
They probably barley had to use a lot of the parts.
I still have a Xenoblade Chronicles X Wii U console brand new as a spare for this very reason.
My launch Wii U works but I need a new gamepad. Time to buy one I suppose.
Your legacy lives on Wii U.
The best selling game on Switch is a Wii U port 😄
Nintendo is doomed !
@Freek Remember Zelda BOTW is also a Wii U port !
Do they still fix 3/2DS XLs?
Only thing I need replaced for WiiU are cheeto-dust-soiled thumbsticks (my WiiU was the communal college dorm Smash machine) so I can definitely fix that myself. Still the sign of an era's end.
I didn't even know they still offered a repair service for Wii U at all tbh. I have 2 Wii Us one I use myself and the other I bought for my friend as a Christmas Present. We still play on them quite a lot to this day.
Only replacement I need for my Wii U right now is another GamePad AC Adapter. The system and GamePad are still as functional as when I booted them up for the first time in 2013.
Will consider getting a second Wii U, though.
So far all of my systems work fine, except for the Wii. That one I believe is busted for good.
There must be quite a few new Wii U's out there in the wild, the console was not a massive seller...
Mine is sitting in a bag in my friend's place, has been for a few years now. I keep on meaning to pick it back up. Loaned it out when I got my Switch. My nephews had it for a year or 2 and loved it, then I passed it on.
@The_Flume Maybe I just had bad luck, because my sample size is one. But I've had more trouble with my Wii U than any other console I've ever owned. To be fair, some of the problems have been with the gamepad, and on any other console, swapping controllers wouldn't be a problem.
I have had a ZombiU Edition Wii U since launch and despite heavy use it's still going strong. In case something irreversible could happen I've still got a sealed Super Mario Maker Edition Wii U.
@Yousef- And yet there’s still no Wii U emulator for macOS… 😭
@XE77 That was the bundle I got, too! In March of 2013, to be exact!
But what if I accidentally drop my Wii U in the Pacific Ocean while in Japan? What happens now, Nintendo?
I replace my touch screen, joy cons right&left chips and whole 2 chip set left&right bottons that include sholders bottons on my wii u gamepad thanks to aliexpress during 2013 to 2020 i open up my wii u gamepad more than 20+ times so hope that aliexpress will keep to give us the parts
They had that many left over Wii U's, they only ran out of spare parts now lol.
@TheFox strange, I've never had any problems with my Wii U compared to something like the Switch.
Well crap... the HDMI connection on my Wii U crapped out a few years back and I was so distracted by my Switch that I kind of forgot about trying to get it fixed.
Kinda nervous about turning on my wii u. Its been since before 2016 lol. I know that battery in there has to be dead, I hope I can still play it without that battery
@Yousef- Not on purpose...it was a mix between Region Lock and poor impulse control. I have several 3ds systems despite not liking the 3DS (does not make my vision happy) simply because region lock and Nintendo kept slapping Triforces on the darn things.
@Ryu_Niiyama oh I had to scroll back since I forgot what I wrote there. Wasn’t a deep comment. and yeah this is still relatable. Although my reasons can be a little silly sometimes, like I wanted a blue psp to go along my red one, I eventually decided it wasn’t a good idea and stayed content with it. Impulse purchases do be a lil silly.
@Yousef- Nah my fault. Sometimes i get behind on notifications and I always wait a bit before responding to someone that is newly tagging me (to read other posts a person makes to vet them...internet is unhinged out here. I've had a few bad experiences being friendly upfront here.) so I was just catching up. Feel free to ignore my responses if they are too old. lol.
@Ryu_Niiyama all good : D
“Vet them”? Sorry English isn’t my first language and google translated that as “being critical”, I hope that’s close enough.
Back on topic, I welcome all discussions so even old replies are welcome xD
And yeah I can sometimes take a week to reply to someone. Life definitely gets in the way.
Oh! By “vet them”, you mean reading their post history. I figured that halfway through writing this.
Yeah, people online can be unpredictable. To be honest, I’m quite easy to intimidate online, dealt with social anxiety all my life, even at my mid 20s it’s worse than ever xD
I was gonna reply to your fighting game comment but I kept forgetting, but all I was gonna say was that I relate to picking the girl character in games but make exceptions for large roster games and that my two favorite FG chars are Paul Phoenix and Guile (I like street brawelers and soldier characters, they’re so badass)
I have nothing left to say so have a good rest of your day xD
(Edit: on an unrelated note, the idea of someone searching through my post history is extremely funny because either they’re getting bored to tears or they’re having a nightmare navigating my chaotic personality xDD hopefully it wasn’t either of those)
@Yousef- Haha, no it's not that extreme, I don't search a person's post history so much as I pay attention to when they post a bit more to get a sense of the type of person they are. As long as my post history is I would never recommend that.
To "vet" someone is to carefully examine beforehand, not entirely certain of the entomological origin but I always assumed it was from "The vet" which is short for veterinarian hospital (with the connotation that a doctor checks over patients carefully). However it is slang, so even as a native English speaker I won't claim to know the precise origin. I would not apply "to be critical" because while that truly means to analyze something/someone, it usually implies to do so in an adverse or disapproving fashion...which isn't the case here. That being said, "critical" can often default back to its meaning of analysis when used as an adjective rather than a verb. Such as Critical Thinking. "Vet" in general is also short for veteran as well. Sorry I love to discuss language in general, be it English or any other as I love diction. I hope that clarifies things though. What is your native language if you don't mind me asking?
Yeah don't worry about it. I'm pretty mild mannered so long as everyone is polite (please note I said polite and not nice). So I hope that I have not made you anxious or intimidated you. And it happens to everyone sometimes, I'm in my late 30's and sometimes I get overwhelmed as well. Just take life as it is, one day at a time.
Yeah for me, as I'm an 80's baby, there weren't as many non Damsel in Distress female characters in video games to look up to that were age appropriate (and metroid scared me so I never became a big Samus Aran fan) but fighting games always had at least one or two cool women to look up to (and I grew up with all the really good xmen games so Storm, who is my favorite superhero, was fun to play as). Chun-Li is actually my favorite SF character but I am TERRIBLE with charge characters (this includes Guile) and turbo characters (so her Lightning Kick) so I ended up drifting to Ryu and I tend to play either all rounders like him. But growing up there was nothing like beating the boys with a female character especially as I was usually shorter and probably standing on a box at the arcade during my early years. It kinda punched the "girls don't play video games" nonsense I used to hear all the time growing up.
I love that there are so many more different playstyles for female characters in fighting games or character creators. Means that I could branch out more to play the characters I think are the coolest rather than just the ones I play well with. But like I said Vanessa Lewis from VF is pretty much my dream character, from her design to her playstyle.
Have a lovely day as well!
@Ryu_Niiyama
Yeah I don’t really mind the question at all. My first language is Arabic, then English, then Spanish, last one being learned for cultural and historical reasons as I don’t always have someone talk to with, and to also eventually branch out to Portuguese for similar reasons (and to connect with my best friend who’s Brazilian).
I was monolingual up to the age of 12, where I first become self-taught in English to avoid failing at school and to finally complete some missions in GTA San Andreas I was stuck. Like the mission that required you to raise your diving stat. I literally could not get into it because I quite literally could not read and understand the text. Once I learned English, it was a breeze among many other things. In case you’re wondering, RPGs were never my forte because of the language barrier so it was always platformers, shooters and actions games for me to play. Plenty of ones too, ps2 was essentially a golden age for them (ape escape, ratchet & clank, max Payne, gta, dynasty warriors, bully, the warriors, manhunt, you really could not possibly run out)
I was a PlayStation gamer most of my life with Nintendo only coming into my life around my early to mid 20s. I’m a native-Kuwaiti so PlayStation is in my blood and veins, I’ve lived in Kuwait my entire life. I’ve only ever driven out of the country to visit places in Saudi Arabia like Hafr which borders Kuwait and Mecca for religious reasons. I’ve driven to Bahrain too, a 6 hour drive, definitely wore me out. I flew to UAE and Qatar, the latter of which being out of my pocket. I’d like to go Oman, drive to Iraq, visit Lebonon or Iran but traveling gets harder as time goes on. My pop hooked me up with an agent who can theoretically make it more financially manageable. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll finally go to London or visit my brother in Atlanta.
I should mention too here in Arab countries we have MBC2, airs a ton of films so I learned English by watching movies too.
Yeah I feel kinda privileged I grew up sometime after the damsel in distress age was dying out. I try not take it for granted. I’m glad I’ve had many strong headed women to look up. Sun Shangxiang being almost an idol of mine.
Fighting Games are essentially a haven for varied female characters. There’s even a female sumo wrestler in KoF. Yeah I can understand not liking charge characters, they take getting used to and getting inside the proper mindset. I love Guile and Boxer (Balrog in the US) because of how hard hitting and defensive they can be.
Best of wishes.
Edit:… not really an edit. I tried putting that into my original message but it deemed the final thing to be too long. I didn’t even know NL had a word limit on its comments.
my original message:
Edit: important edit because it’s a large chunk I forgot to add. I have no native English speakers to speak to in Kuwait. Some military guys come here but they’re either on vacation or just don’t try to chat with the locals much which is aight. Can difficult to start a conversation with folks you don’t even know share your language.
English is spoken here primarily as an international language, hardly used on a day-to-day basis outside of business. Lots of monolingual Arabs or ones who only speak it on a basic conversational level and can’t always convey complex thoughts (nothing wrong with that obviously).
Many English speakers here come from Philippines and India, places were English is spoken as a day-to-day language and has some native monolingual English speakers but they usually use it differently from how Americans/British/Canadians/Aussies use it. More specifically the dialect is different.
Sorry for the info dump. Mr Google Man will give information about this in this detail, Mr Google-Man will likely give a superficial summary that’s gonna be quite reductive. This comes from the heart. Surprisingly, Reddit can be a good place to learn about Kuwait , mainly r/Kuwait which I’m surprised has a healthy community. “Reddit” and “Healthy” don’t typically belong within the same sentence.
@Yousef- Howdy, I wanted to wait until I was free to take the time to read and respond. Haha you hit the word limit…I used to do that all the time.
I love that video games bridge cultures. I used JRPGs to teach myself Japanese (I was also exposed to the language early on but that wasn’t intentional. My mother had a coworker that thought it was funny to speak to a toddler in Japanese). I’m too self conscious about though, so I rarely use it when speaking even though I have the opportunity. So I commend you for practicing/using English when you can. I had a friend in college that was learning Arabic for his thesis in religious studies. Lovely language, I can’t wrap my head around it though. For me English (Southern American) and Japanese are my main languages, although I do speak Spanish, Gaelic and some Thai, Italian, Greek and enough Mandarin to get cussed out. Haha.
English is three root languages stacked together in a trenchcoat made of patches of other languages wearing a hat from wherever country is speaking it at the time. If you think differences between English used in different countries is bad wait until you encounter all the dialects within English speaking countries. When I went to undergrad university I felt like I had to relearn English due to the culture shock. English from movies is usually bad because the actors aren’t from the location they are pretending to be in (for instance most movies set in the Southern US…terrible accents and vernacular).
Ah yeah you are definitely a PlayStation gamer. PlayStation marketing in the US was very much aimed at teenage boys and as I was neither of those things I stuck with Nintendo. Got my first Sony system at 17. I tend to buy all 3 major consoles but I spend les time on PlayStation or Xbox and don’t have nostalgia for either.
Ah yea the joys of long road trips. I drove to a Taiko conference 8 hours away (played all day) and drove back that night. Slept like a rock. I used to prefer driving until I drove through Texas. 3 days. Ugh. I do hope that you will travel more in the future. The world is a beautiful planet and people should see as much of it as they can. I’m wondering how your brother acclimated to the weather difference between London and Kuwait. I’ve been and it is as rainy and grey as stereotypes say.
Aside from the midwest and Alaska, I have driven through or visited 33 of the states in the US (including PR). I went to Canada and several countries in Europe as a teen (trip for scholastic excellence) but I have not yet visited the Middle East (as an American woman this isn’t on my travel list), Africa, South America or any of Asia. I’m saving to go to Japan in a year though (Mario and I both turn 40 in the same year so I wanna do a Nintendo tour).
Agreed on the diversity of fighting game rosters. Easily made me a lifelong fan. (But thank goodness for comics and manga.) You will usually see me in the fighting game comment sections around here. Wow you play Boxer too! Woo yeah another “Ryu can’t play them” pick. I respect your versatility. Boxer, Claw and Dictator (avid fighting game fans use the region free names instead dealing with Capcom’s fear of Mike Tyson) are all in the I don’t touch pile. I do like the pressure they put on though. I tend to be a rushdown turtle (as in block until I find a break in your combo and then steamroll with combos. Back off, rinse and repeat).
I hope your weekend is a pleasant one!
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