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[staticneuron]

Not true. I was shopping for a Wii U as a gift. I saw three stores in Central NJ that had multiple units available all suddenly have no inventory the next day. I went to two stores just to make sure and both stores said they were instructed to remove the Wii U consoles as well as their demo station from the store floor.

Instructed by who?

It is possible that nintendo purchased inventory back if they wanted to clear shelves but to do so more than 4 months in advance of a possible replacement is extreme and unlikely. The likelyhood of them simply not shipping anymore and stores taking them down because they haven't been moving is much greater. All these anecdotal stories are just that, while we have the official response. Mind you between 09-30-15 and 09-30-16 they only sold 2.6 million Wii U's WORLDWIDE. This is already is after many retailers simply pulled Wii U's off the shelves. Stores are not going to let products simply sit on shelves if there is no demand. They are going to reclaim the space.

That surprises me. I've seen stores in Sweden stocked with Wii U's. You can check the inventory at some of them to see which store in town's got them, and they've barely moved at all for months because they were till 300€. And suddenly they're all gone, from one week to another. They must've been sent back. No way they sold out without even being discounted.

The links I posted only referred to US and Japan, iirc. Not sure of the status of Europe.

Edit:

It is true that a few million more Dreamcast consoles were sold than Wii Us.

That is not true. Dreamcast sold 9.13 million million before being pulled off shelves while Nintendo sold 13.36 million Wii U's according to last fiscal.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Nintendo sells "refurbished" Wii U's w/ Nintendoland (no idea what that even is) on eBay for $200.

That's likely going to be the best bet at this point, as far as I can tell. I'm thinking about jumping in on one myself and using up my eBay bucks from last quarter...

I bought one of those "refurbished" a few years back. The thing was brand new. The serial hadn't been registered. I suspect that it was store returned stock that Nintendo was selling as refurbished to protect the price of units still on store shelves.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Of course, this could all vary depending on the long-term lifespan of the GamePads. They have no moving parts so I expect that they'll last a long time, but you never know.

The GamePad is my worry. Controllers don't last forever. Buttons stop registering, joysticks stop centering, etc. There are no moving parts in the traditional sense, but there are a lot of parts that get moved. I know I've needed to get my Gamepad serviced.

This isn't a problem for other consoles because of the existence of third party controllers combined with the fact that the total number of controllers manufactured is much higher than the total number of consoles. Neither of these things exist for the Wii U Gamepad.

 

[Chinbo37]

I just doubled down considering I have no plans to get a switch.

Bought 4 wii motes pluses, 2 pro controllers and a yoshi plush amiibo (my first and hopefully only one).

I also grabbed the special edition of Tokyo mirage sessions.

Now I just need to continue to pick up games before they get too hard to find.

 

[Sevenfold]

Just checked on mine... Still there! Phew!

 

[LoveCake]

You can still get used/pre owned ones doubtful you will find a 'new' one that hasn't had it's price put into orbit.

I have noticed certain WiiU games going for slightly higher prices on ebay as well, I wonder if since the Switch reveal, people have been looking back at the WiiU and re-considering it?

I still have mine, and the ZombiU box it came in.

 

[everthustodeadbeats]

Wii U might be a nice collectible. Does Wii U games, does Wii games, does Wii U VC and Wii VC, and there is even a hack to get it to play Gamecube discs(I think).

Will keep. Switch feels a lot like that first PS2 year(JPN launch) where near nothing was on the system.

 

[yyr]

That is not true. Dreamcast sold 9.13 million million before being pulled off shelves while Nintendo sold 13.36 million Wii U's according to last fiscal.

The 13.36M figure is shipped, not sold, according to Wikipedia. With speculation that many were recalled, the actual sold number could be lower.

I had found a higher figure for the DC but if Wikipedia's numbers are to be believed, yours is right.

 

[Neoxon]

I believe there were reports of either retailers sending back their stock or Nintendo recalling said stock. Either way, it's gonna be a bit difficult to get your hands on a Wii U now. The 3DS may not be far behind, given its recent scarcity (though the n3DS family & maybe the 2DS could get restocks since Nintendo's giving the platform one more year of decent support).