Wii U Production Ends Worldwide

[UPDATE] A spokesperson for Nintendo confirmed to GameSpot that "Wii U production has ended globally."

The original story is below.

Wii U production has officially ended in Japan, Nintendo has announced. This was confirmed in an update on the company's Japanese website, as translated by Kotaku.

The end of production is only for Japan. GameSpot has reached out to Nintendo of America in an attempt to find out what the status of Wii U production is.

This is no surprise, as Nintendo confirmed last year that Wii U production would end soon in Japan. At the time, Nintendo also said that, as of November 2016, it had sent all of its Wii U shipments to North American retailers for the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2017.

It's no secret that the Wii U has come up short. The system, which went on sale in November 2012, has sold 13.56 million units around the world as of December 31, 2016. This compares to more than 101 million units sold for the Wii. The Wii, of course, was a massive, global hit, and matching that success was always going to be a challenge for the Wii U.

The end of production announcement today came on the same day that Nintendo reported earnings, during which it revealed that the Wii U sold 760,000 units over a nine-month period. That was down 75 percent compared to the same period during the previous fiscal year.

Nintendo's next console is the Switch, which goes on sale on March 3. A hybrid machine, the system can play games at home on a TV or on the go via a tablet-like screen.

For more on Nintendo hardware throughout the years, check out GameSpot's new feature, "The Evolution Of Nintendo Consoles."