My 4 year old has been begging for a Wii U for quite a while now. He has seen a few commercials for Spatoon while watching his cartoons and he watches Mario Maker videos on Youtube a lot. He asked Santa for a Wii U and Mario Maker for Christmas but I hesitated and just wasn't ready to drop $300 on the console and games if it is going to be killed off soon anyhow.. 

My question is this. Should I even care? Should I get it regardless? The games will all be playable forever, right? No needing to be hooked up to Nintendo servers or some other junk? Maybe if it is discontinued the prices will come down? (or up?) 

Pretty much I wanted some gamers opinions on if I should invest in a Wii U without knowing it's future. Or if I should even care what it's future is? It offers some amazing games that I really want to try and my son will have many many years of enjoyment out of. Is it worth the investment near the end of it's life?

Just buy it. It doesn't matter if it is going to be killed soon or not, he wants those 2 games.
Also, there are other games friendly for 4 yo like Captain Toad and 3D World.

Once you buy the games(and the systems), you can play it forever!No servers needed and stuff!(well, taking off the multiplayer part of the games, of course)

My personal opinion is that yes, it is more than worth it.The system has some excellent games, and is more than enough reason to justify a purchase.But I also would recommend waiting for E3 to know what NX is all about and if it is Backwards compatible.If its not, then go ahead and buy a Wii U.You have been missing alot!

The Wii U won't get replaced so soon. So, get it. It has some fun games to enjoy ;)

The Wii U is in no danger of getting discontinued. Nintendo still produces Wiis. It's in the danger of getting replaced though.

Personally I would wait, at least til its succesor is announced. By then you can make the decision on wether you might just want to buy him an NX instead, and either way, once a successor is announced, I'm sure you'll be able to grab a Wii U for cheap if you don't want to buy an NX.

I would wait for information about the backwards compatibility of the NX. But if you want the system anyway, I'd wait until the NX announcement. Once it's announced the WiiU will be greatly discounted both by Nintendo and retailers, to get rid of stock.

You should have got it. Don't believe everyone who says that the Wii u is being replaced this year. Don't believe anything until nintendo comes out and says it. The Wii U has incredible games and is by far the best console this generation. Your son would love it, and if money is somewhat of an issue, just keep in mind that wii u games generally hold their value very well. You get a very nice return on them compared to other games. Jump on board, man. We have seen nothing but amazing support from nintendo these past two years on the Wii u.

We're not far away from NX's announcement. You could wait and see if the NX has backwards compatibility.

But yes, it is absolutely 100% worth your time to get a Wii U regardless of replacement or not. It has some of Nintendo's best games in years, and the best part is that a majority of those games are already out for the system. Whatever it has left in it can only add to the awesome, like Zelda and Star Fox.

Create a magical moment. 

Your kid wanted a $300 console with a ton of quality games, two of which you would have gotten for free, and it's backwards compatible with the Wii...and you decided not to? The only reasoning I can understand you doing this is that A...you were broke, or B...he's only 4. Beyond that, it really is a no brainer. The WiiU is a great family console with very immersive single player experiences as well. Even if no other games are released it's still an amazing library.