Will the Wii U become rare/expensive?

Since they announced that they stopped production of Wii U`s I feel like I have heard a decent amount of stories of Wii U`s being sold out. Considering how poorly the console sold anyway I have been wondering if the Wii U will end up becoming hard to find/expensive before too long.

Even since Bayonetta 2 was released I have been trying to find ways to justify a Wii U purchase. Considering I only want to play 3 games on the system though (Bayonetta, Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild) it has been pretty hard to come up with a compelling argument. I am getting a bit worried now though that waiting to purchase a Wii U will not actually lower the price of the console, but instead raise it.

I haven`t paid attention to the prices of consoles that stopped production before, so I have no idea how this usually turns out. So I wondered if any of you guys had any insight into this. Do you think the price of a Wii U will start going up in the somewhat near future? If you have any super compelling arguments to why I should buy a Wii U feel free to also throw those out. Thanks!

You can get a Dreamcast on Amazon for 50-100 bucks. The Wii U is very similar to the Dreamcast in terms of sales (I think Wii U sold 13 million to Dreamcast's 10 million) and in having a strong library from a beloved publisher. Nintendo stuff always sells for more, but I'd guess 20 years from now a Wii U will be about $200, which is what a refurb unit from Nintendo costs now.

It's definitely not rare enough to be a F-M Towns Marty or Laseractive type situation.

Some of the games might get pretty expensive though. Especially ones with low print runs and high popularity, and especially Nintendo stuff.

Honestly I think games for the system will have a higher rarity than the system itself. The only reason the Wii U will remain at a higher price, especially higher than the Dreamcast is thanks to the tablet controller. But there are enough systems in the wild to keep it from becoming this ultra rare and expensive thing. However I agree that it is truly the DreamCast of this generation.

If you can find one in the wild on the cheap it'll probably be worth investing in, not worth buying one anywhere near rrp though of you're looking to flip a profit.

@bigsocrates: My response was pretty much exactly the same. As valuable as the Dreamcast.

As someone said I think the games will hold more value. I picked up a sealed copy of breath of the wild to store away since I already have the Switch version. I'm keeping my Wii U anyways because of Mario Maker.

I thought about getting one for zelda but they are still too much and dont loom like they will drop proce anytime soon. Maybe of nintendo opens up to third party support i will get the switch as a handheld down the road.

I'm betting the majority of the best selling content will migrate eventually if not to the switch then to a new system or finally going 3rd party across all consoles, which in my opinion should have happened after the gamecube.negating most demand for the system.

I've been thinking the same thing. I might just buy the refurbished console from Nintendo for $200, play Pikmin 3, Tropical Freeze, and Bayonetta 2 and then sell it on eBay or something.

Wii U has just enough games for me to want one, and i'm not sure how many of those games are getting ported to Switch. I assume Switch will get a version of the last Smash game and an updated Mario Maker but I hope they announce some Wii U ports at E3. This is the few times where re-releases matter.

Can it get more expensive? It's already almost as much as a Switch here. But for real, no it won't. Rare yes, expensive probably not because no one cares.

I don't think it'll go up too much in price. Not only that, but I have a pretty strong feeling that we're going to see a lot of Wii U games ported to the Switch.

If you want one, I'd go ahead and track one down. I'm really glad I picked mine up when I did.

The Switch will probably get a fair amount of Wii U ports so that's going to tank its value IMO.

Nintendo have too many good games on the Wii U that didn't get the attention they deserved because of the low install base.

On my search for a Switch over the last week, I haven't seen a single Wii U in stores. I don't know if that means anything but I'm glad I have one.

Honestly I don't play my Wii U nearly as much as my PS4 or PC (well that's not true with Zelda out now) but looking back on the games I do have for it (about 10 or 11) I'm damn sure glad I have it. I did always have a Nintendo console growing up for what it's worth though.

@odinsmana: You don't want to play: Super Mario 3D World, Super Smash Bros, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Pikmin 3, Super Mario Maker, Mario Kart 8, The Wonderful 101, New Super Mario Bros U or Funky Barn?

More than enough titles are there that are worth the purchase. Plus the homebrew community is nuts! Smash has a crazy amount of custom characters and levels in the mod scene.

It's also super easy to homebrew the Wii U compared to the Wii. It took me minutes to homebrew the Wii U compared to the hours it took for me to get the Wii homebrewed.

@dr_monocle: Word. I like my Wii U. I don't care who knows it. Kinda like the Gamecube for me. Not a huge library (understatement). But a really interesting and fun one for sure.

I had forgotten about Wonderfull 101. That seems neat, but it`s not something I`m dying to play and while I love the style and story of the Persona games I kinda hate the gameplay and as I understand it the gameplay in Tokyo Mirage Session is pretty similar.

Otherwise the only Mario games I really like are the RPGs (and even those have kinda gone bad in recent years). I don`t really care for either the 2D, 3D or kart racer games in that series.

Multiplayer fighting games don`t really interest me and I don`t have that strong love for or connection to the Nintendo characters, so Smash isn`t really my jam.

If I had a Wii U I would check out Pikmin, but it`s not something I am that interested in.

As you can probably see, other than Zelda I am just not that into Nintendo's console output. That`s the reason it`s been really hard for me to justify the purchase since until very recently the only games I was interested in on the system was Bayonetta 2 and Wind Waker HD. Bayonetta 1 is my favorite character action game and Wind Waker seems awesome, but it`s hard to justify buying a console for 2 (now 3 games) when there are enough stuff out on stuff I already own to keep me occupied.

As a more general response to the thread. It seems the Wii U price probably won`t go up immediately and some of you had some good arguments that the big Wii U games might get ported to the Switch, so I will hold my purchase and try to get through all the great stuff released this year that I haven't gotten around to yet.

Few years ago I bought a Dreamcast and 10 games for like 70$. Considering the Wii U is basically the Dreamcast of our times, I'd say it will be just fine.

Least popular Nintendo console so far and most of the Wii U good games are franchises that appear on every Nintendo platform, in the short term it'll hold it value but in time it'll be forgotten its not gonna be a hot collectors item.

I figure it will only go up, seeing as the price never really dropped at all in the secondary market. For being so unpopular, the Wii U really held its value. I've been wondering for years how much a price cut on the system would have helped its sales. Seems crazy that they never tried it.

@odinsmana: For sure man. Different strokes for different folks. I love home brewing Nintendo consoles. I buy the previous Nintendo console when the newest iteration is released. so i'm still in that honeymoon phase. The Wii U home brew scene is exciting right now.

My copy of Bayonetta 2 is apparently already worth more than MSRP, mostly because it is the launch edition. If the emulation doors get blown off like on the Wii that might change.

Up until Nintendo cuts the servers from it.

@corvak: The emulation/hacking doors are already well blown off now. But that generally doesn't change the price of rare(er) games.

Now that the Switch is a success I don't think Nintendo's going third party, at least for a long time.

#alwaysbetondukeimeannintendo

I traded in my copy of Bayonetta 2. I also deleted P.T. from my PS4 even though I knew I could never re-download it. I'm a loose. fucking. unit.

That would be the MOST Nintendo move of all.

One week before Super Mario Odyssey launches they announce a Nintendo direct. Miyamoto comes on. Shows some video for SMO. Announces "And we have changed plans. It will now be an Amazon Fire exclusive." Feed goes dark. Internet explodes. Nintendo issues a two word press release in response to the controversy. "Please understand."

Final game released for the Switch is Steep.

As for the OP...3 months later new Wii Us are pretty pricey but you can still get a refurb for 200. If more Wii U games get ported to Switch the prices will likely come down, but I actually think that's less likely than others do. Smash will come over, and maybe the Zelda remasters, but I don't think Nintendo is going to bring stuff like Bayonetta 2 over and I actually think Mario Maker is not that likely, even though it's an obvious move and would be awesome.

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

Argos (a catalogue shop in the U.K.) is selling a Wii U bundle, console and Mario Cart 8 for £250 and a Switch (on its own) for £280.

Make of that what you will...

I'm not sure what to think. I think the Switch stock availability, combined with Zelda's release, might've made this a more unique situation than others in the past. When I was having trouble getting a Switch, I did check around for Wii U's as well out of curiosity... and they were sold out everywhere, even used ones were going for well over the price of new. That'll change obviously, especially depending how many U games they port to Switch, but anytime soon you're going to pay too much for a Wii U, I think, if you can even find one at a reasonable price.

They stopped manufacturing them too early, and also underestimated the Zelda/Switch demand. It may be a more-expensive-than-new (or close) used console for 1-2 years at least...

The WiiU will go up in price over time, because it was the last purely home-based console from Nintendo. It's a part of gaming history now.

A lot of us who have been following amiibo long enough know that anything from Nintendo goes up in price once it's discontinued.