Nintendo said Wednesday (2 October) it will stop making its Wii console for the Japanese market, but will keep producing it internationally.<\/p>\n
The move to abandon the home console, which competes with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3, will allow Nintendo to focus its efforts on its successor.<\/p>\n
“Our new generation Wii U console is already on the market and allows users to play software originally designed for the Wii,” a Nintendo spokesman told AFP.<\/p>\n
“So this is part of the transition of our products to new models,” he said.<\/p>\n
The company will keep producing Wii for markets abroad including its cheaper version Wii mini, he said.<\/p>\n
Since its release in 2006 Wii has sold more than 100 million units worldwide.<\/p>\n
The Wii disrupted the world of consoles on its launch, with its emphasis on family-orientated gaming that made use of wireless controllers fitted with accelerometers.<\/p>\n
These controllers, which sparked the production of games where players could actually mimic the body movements of a sport or playing a musical instrument, were widely copied.<\/p>\n
Nintendo launched the Wii U console late last year, although analysts said a lack of games took away some of the fizz the company had been hoping for after its 3DS console saw disappointing demand abroad.<\/p>\n
Nintendo, maker of the iconic Donkey Kong and Super Mario brands, has been locked in a war with Sony and Microsoft, makers of the PlayStation and Xbox video game consoles, for dominance of a sector worth about $44 billion a year.<\/p>\n
Nintendo swung to a net profit of $88 million in the three months to June as a weakening yen helped inflate its overseas results.<\/p>\n
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