are you referring to the WiiU ?
hmm strange, mine seems to be in use every day... you can play WiiU, Wii, (to some extent) GC games on it, also there are quite alot emulators for vWii (NES/Famicom, SNES/Super Famicom, GB, GBA and more), it's usable as home theatre entertainment system (PLEX) and you can still browse the web at the same time... hell, I can even take the gamepad with me and keep reading/browsing/watching whatever I do, while I cook in the kitchen or go to the toilet
hmm, dunno about other people, but my WiiU certainly is not dead, it may someday die on old age, cuz it's working its ass off couple hours a day =)