The Nintendo Wii U was released in November of 2012, and was Nintendo's first 8th generation contribution to the gaming world. Nintendo had a lot of momentum coming off the wildly successful Nintendo Wii. Thanks to that success, Nintendo opted to try and keep some familiarity with it's newly tapped casual gaming fanbase. They added a "U" on the end, and continued to expand on it's immersive features; thanks to the Wii U Gamepad. The Wii U is also fully compatible with the Nintendo Wii, and all it's accessories. It even decided to hold a very similar shape and color as the console that came before it. Unfortunately, even with all its similarities to the Wii, the Wii U could not capitalize on the previous generations momentum. Delays of a new Legend of Zelda, confusion on if the Wii U was actually a new console, and development of a ground breaking new Nintendo console, all contributed to the discontinuation of the Wii U in January of 2017. Replaced that same year by the incredibly successful 8th generation console, The Nintendo Switch