Nintendo has denied that they are ending the production of Wii U. The NX is reportedly rumored to be launched in 2016.
On March 23, Wednesday, Nintendo was reportedly going to end production of its current home console, according to Nikkei The report also said that the company has already stopped making some of the its accessories.
Later that day, the hardware manufacturer's spokesperson told IT Media that the article Nikkei published was not "an announcement from the company." They added that they still plan to continue to produce the console unit "next fiscal year and beyond." The American division of the company has not given any statement as yet.
The home console was launched in November 2012 and it was seen as the successor to the company's popular Wii console. It had better features compared to its predecessor like better graphical capabilities and a controller that has dual-screen functionality.
Wii U sales were low against its predecessor and other major home consoles like Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. After the console debuted, third-party game publishers reportedly sent back their console development kits.
As of Dec. 31, 2015, 12.6 million units of the family home console were sold around the world while ts predecessor that had sales of 101.6 million units. The PlayStation 4 sold almost 36 million units worldwide. Xbox One's sales is still unknown because Microsoft would not reveal it to the public.
The recent home console might not be as successful as the console before it but it can still attract attention. Its sales grew more than 150 percent last week due to the release of the Pokemon fighting video game called "Pokken Tournament."
With the issues of the console's sales and Nikkei's strong, reliable reputation when it comes to covering the Japanese video game market, the article the Japanese newspaper published had some credibility to it.
Meanwhile, the article Nikkei published also reportedly claimed that the upcoming NX will be announced this year, which the Nintendo company has said a few years ago. With the recent low Wii U sales, the new console could replace it.
Watch the end of the Wii U rumor video below: