[10][11] It had low sales, primarily credited to a weak lineup of launch games, limited third-party support,[12] and poor marketing including the lack of distinguishing the unique functionality of the GamePad from just being a tablet device for the Wii.

[21] The concept of a touchscreen embedded within the controller was originally inspired by the blue light on the Wii disc slot that illuminates to indicate new messages.

[22] Miyamoto and his team wanted to include a small screen to provide game feedback and status messages to players (similar to the VMU for Sega's Dreamcast).

Much later in development, this was expanded to a full screen that could display the game being played in its entirety, a concept that was suggested but not financially viable earlier in the project.

[23][24] However, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata later stated that he saw "no significant reason" to include HD into the Wii and that such an addition would be better suited for a successor.

[26] In October 2009, Miyamoto said that Nintendo had no concrete plans about its next console, but thought that the new system would continue to feature motion controls and also expected its interface to be "more compact" and cheaper.

[28] In 2010, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé commented that he felt "confident the Wii home entertainment console has a very long life in front of it" and declared that a successor would not be launched in the near future.

[29] After its E3 2010 presentation, Iwata revealed to the BBC that Nintendo would begin announcing a new console once it ran "out of ideas with the current hardware and cannot give users any more meaningful surprises with the technology".

"[50] On January 26, 2012, Iwata announced that the Wii U would be launched by the end of the 2012 shopping season in all major regions and that its final specifications would be revealed at E3 2012.

[62] Coinciding with the system's price cut, Nintendo released a limited edition The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Wii U Deluxe Set bundle.

The bundle included a black Wii U console with 32 GB of storage, a black Wii U GamePad decorated with a golden Triforce and other thematic symbols, a download code for the game and, in North America, a digital copy of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, a collector's book about The Legend of Zelda series.

[71] On January 10, 2015, Nintendo announced that it would cease selling consoles and games in Brazil due to the high cost of doing business in the country.

[82][83] The Espresso CPU, designed by IBM, consists of a PowerPC 750-based tri-core processor with 3 MB of shared L2 cache memory and clocked at approximately 1.24 GHz.

[93][94] The Wii U features 802.11 b/g /n wireless network connectivity and support for Fast Ethernet with an accessory, Bluetooth 4.0, a total of four USB 2.0 ports, and an SD/SDHC memory card slot.

[114][115][116] Pressing the controller's "Home" button suspends the current game or app and opens the Home Menu: it shows basic information (such as the current time, controller battery levels, and notifications), and allows access to several "multitasking" functions, including the Nintendo eShop, Miiverse, download manager, a web browser,[117] and the user's friends list.

[120] A social networking service known as Miiverse was integrated into the Wii U's system software; it allowed players to interact and share content in game-specific communities using their Mii as an avatar.

Nintendo has received third-party support from companies such as Ubisoft, Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Activision Blizzard, and Capcom, and various independent developers such as Two Tribes.

As of late July 2016, there have been 39 first-party and 118 third-party Wii U games physically released in the United States; both figures are the lowest for any Nintendo console.

Club's Gameological Society considers the Wii U a compelling video game system which lacks focus, citing Nintendo Land as "ideas act[ing] in service of the technology".

[164] Following the launch of other eighth-generation consoles, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in November 2013, some critics suggested that the Wii U would continue to struggle as it lacked the third-party support of its rivals.

[167] Time writer Matt Peckham said that the Wii U was the system of choice to pick up during that Christmas season, praising the console's game lineup, affordable price, Off-TV Play, the absence of subscription fees for its online services, backward compatibility and media features.

[168] CNET also noted that the Wii U had a better lineup of games and lower price in comparison to its competitors, mainly due to its one-year head start.

"[205] Following the system's $50 price cut and the release of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD on September 20, 2013, Wii U sales in North America saw a 200% rise over August.

Nintendo credited the software growth to key first-party releases like Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.

[217] In February 2014, Nintendo revealed that the Wii U had improved about 180% in year-over-year sales in the United States due to the launch of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which sold 130,000 copies.

[227] In July 2015, Nintendo announced that as of the end of fiscal third quarter 2015, and nearly three years following its launch, it had shipped over ten million Wii U units worldwide.

[228] The future of the Wii U was left unclear with Nintendo's announcement of a new console platform codenamed NX, which was scheduled to be launched worldwide in March 2017.

[229] The announcement that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was in development for both Wii U and NX further supported Nintendo's view of the console as being a new product line, rather than a replacement for its existing hardware.

"[235][236] In mid-November 2016, Nintendo announced that Japanese production of the Wii U would be ending "in the near future", and that shipments to the North American market for the year had already been sent out.

[239] In mid-January 2017, Fils-Aimé told Polygon that Breath of the Wild, which would ship at launch with the Switch in March 2017, would be Nintendo's final first-party game for the Wii U.