Nintendo has officially ended Wii U repair support
Lack of available parts has been cited as the reason for the conclusion of the service
Nintendo has ended its Wii U repair support program, citing a lack of parts.
The repair service, which Nintendo has maintained for all of its hardware long after they were on general sale, allowed users to submit their consoles to Nintendo for either repair using official parts, or replacement hardware.
Last year the company announced that once the current stock of replacement parts for the Wii U ended, the service would conclude, which has now happened.
The Wii U features a large tablet controller, which is not only prone to issues but was never sold separately from the Wii U console itself, meaning stocks of the controller, which is required to play the system, are becoming more limited as time passes.
Online play for the Wii U shut down earlier this year. Nintendo already closed the eShops for the system back in March 2023, but players were able to use the system online until April.
At the time, Nintendo stressed that this only related to in-game online functionality, meaning it would still be possible to download update data and redownload purchased software and DLC from the Wii U eShops “for the foreseeable future”.
The closure of the Wii U and 3DS eShops last year effectively made around 1,000 digital-only eShop games disappear for good.
It also meant the termination of the final systems to support the Virtual Console service. Now the only retro games provided by Nintendo are the ones available on Switch Online’s various apps.
