Nintendo Confirms "No New Development" for Wii U After This Year's Zelda

It sounds like Nintendo won't release any more Wii U games after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Polygon that the highly anticipated RPG, which comes out alongside the Nintendo Switch edition on March 3, could be the last first-party game coming to the underperforming console.

"From a first-party standpoint, there's no new development coming after the launch of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," the executive said. "We really are at the end of life for Wii U."

There might be more new games for the Wii U from Nintendo's publishing partners, however. Additionally, Fils-Aime's quote that there is "no new development" for first-party games after Breath of the Wild could be interpreted as Nintendo not starting any new projects after Breath of the Wild; it's possible some Nintendo games might be in development for the Wii U.

He went on to say that fans can expect Wii U games to continue to be sold at retail and via the Nintendo eShop. Online services for the system and high-profile Nintendo games are staying up for now, Fils-Aime added. Nintendo will shut off online services for games like Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon "some time into the future" but not soon, he said.

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Also in Polygon's interview, Fils-Aime spoke candidly about Nintendo's struggles to effectively communicate to people what the Wii U is. "Even today when I ask people, 'So what was Wii U all about?,' I get a wide variety of responses," he said. "In managing the business, that's just not good."

In an interview with GameSpot, Fils-Aime said the Wii U struggled for two major reasons, one of which was that Nintendo failed to communicate the novelty of the system. The other was that the gaps between major releases was too wide to keep existing owners engaged and draw in new ones. Fils-Aime said Nintendo has learned from these missteps and Switch has a bright future ahead of it.

The $300 Switch launches on March 3. There will be at least six launch titles, the newest of which, The Binding of Isaac, was confirmed this week.