Don't expect the original Wii to disappear once Nintendo launches the Wii U sometime next year.
Speaking in an interview with Time magazine, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime believes the consoles will attract different audiences even when they're both on the market at the same time.
"The consumer buying Wii hardware today is going to be a different consumer than the one who will be buying Wii U in the future," he said. "This is the first holiday that the Wii is available at $149.99 or below, so its an expanded demographic we’re reaching. These are consumers who have heard about Wii for the past couple years,but at $199 or $249 it was economically out of their reach.
"We haven’t announced pricing for Wii U, but you can definitely expect that pricing is going to be different and that the games are going to be different. We do believe that Wii and Wii U will coexist for some time. As we drive the install base of Wii, we’re really setting people up to take their gaming library and be able to transfer it over to Wii U."
Nintendo recently said it plans to re-unveil the Wii U at E3 this coming June.
[Source: Time]