The end of an era – Nintendo stops Wii production in Japan

Nintendo of Japan has confirmed that it has ceased production of the Wii.

CVG spotted an addition to the console’s product page on the NoJ website that simply says ‘manufacturing has ended’.

The same page earlier this month carried the message ‘manufacturing is scheduled to end soon’.

That means that while Wii’s life was certainly bright it was also comparatively short-lived, having only gone on sale in 2006. As recently as 2009 Wii was selling over 7m units per year and in 2010 neared 6m units sold.

Nintendo didn’t cease production of the NES/Famicom, which was launched in 1983, until 2003. The GameCube was killed just a year into Wii’s lifecycle, however.

There’s no sign yet that either PS3 or Xbox 360, which arrived in 2006 and 2005 respectively, are nearing termination.

Wii achieved a huge amount in its life, though, with global sales of over 100m units – only the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 have achieved more (and the Game Boy and DS if you include portables).