Nintendo Stops Producing Console That's More Popular Than Wii U

During the June quarter,

sold

of the seven-year-old Wii game console. Wii U, Nintendo's newest game console, sold 160,000 units during the same period. Despite the sales discrepancy, Nintendo has decided to throw its weight behind Wii U and cease production of the original Wii console. According to

, Nintendo has stopped producing Wii -- which has sold

-- for the Japanese market. Wii Mini (the lower-cost iteration

) will still be produced. Consumers will also be able to buy the original Wii in other markets, but its availability could be limited now that Nintendo is ceasing production in one territory. Nintendo has not released a major Wii game in the United States since

arrived in November 2011. On Nintendo.com, most of the promoted games --

,

and

, to name a few -- are at least three years old.

While Nintendo has shifted its development resources to Wii U, the company has been slow to release new software for the system.

, the follow-up to

, was

from December 2013 to February 2014. Before that, Nintendo held back the release of

for nearly one full year before it was released. The DKC delay leaves only a handful of games in Nintendo's holiday lineup:

(which is already in stores),

(out this week),

(due November 22) and a downloadable version of

. Nintendo will also publish two games from Sega:

and

. Meanwhile,

will publish three games --

,

and

when PlayStation 4 arrives on November 15.

will publish three games for Xbox One when it is released on November 22:

,

and

. Third-party developers will also provide both new consoles with a variety of games, such as

from

and

from

. Disclosure: