The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be Nintendo’s last game for the Wii U. With the Switch on the horizon, and after a tumultuous four and a half year life, Nintendo will lay it to rest after Zelda’s March 3rd release.

In an interview with Polygon, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime stated:

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

The End Of An Era

The end of a console’s life is always a little sad, but it also allows everyone the chance to go back and appreciate the great games for it that fell through the cracks that they might have missed. For the Wii U, those games were all too common.

For those that owned one, the Wii U was a console with some spectacular games. For those that didn’t, some of those games may get a second life on the Switch, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe being the first one we’ve seen so far. There have been strong rumors that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Xenoblade Chronicles X are also being ported to Nintendo’s console/handheld hybrid.

The Wii U was Nintendo’s lowest-selling console to date, selling 13.36 million units worldwide. Talking about what Nintendo has taken away from it, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said:

“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.”

There have been no signs that Nintendo’s messaging with the Switch will follow the same route. The Switch’s first reveal trailer put that to rest immediately.

And The Beginning Of A New Era

After the Wii’s massive success, Nintendo obviously wants to try and recapture that success with straightforward messaging about the simplicity of what the Switch can do. Coupled with great games, they’re betting that will sell the system this time around.

That doesn’t sound like a bad formula. Don’t ever count Nintendo out.

It’s not all sad news though. Nintendo will still be keeping the online servers open for games like Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon. Nintendo has no plans to “sunset” these games for the forseeable future. Also, you’ll still be able to buy Wii U games digitally on the eShop.

“From our standpoint, sunsetting is quite some time into the future. The ongoing activity from an online standpoint on [Mario] Kart and Splatoon is significant. We’re going to continue to support that.”

Goodbye Wii U. May you be appreciated more in your after-years than you were during your lonely sojourn through the video game industry. Take your place in the great game-room in the sky.