Nintendo Shutting Down Wii Channels

[Andy Chalk]

Nintendo Shutting Down Wii Channels

A half-dozen Wii Channels, including the Nintendo Channel and the Mii Content Channel, will go offline at the end of June.

"Wii Channels are the main gateway for a variety of easy-to-use, interactive multimedia, entertainment and communication functions," Nintendo says on its website, which is why (or perhaps not) it will soon be pulling the plug on six of them. Effective June 28, 2013, the following Wii Channels will be taken offline:


Nintendo Channel
News Channel
Forecast Channel
Everybody Votes Channel
Mii Contest Channel
Data exchange with Wii Friends


The end of the Wii Friends data exchange means that the exchange of Wii messages on the Wii message board, exchange of Mii characters on Mii Central and message/data exchange in some games will also be disabled.

I'm not sure how much of a big deal this really is, since Nintendo didn't say anything about why it's killing the channels or how many people are still making use of them, but I know at least one person who is almost inconsolable because he won't be able to play Wii Weather anymore. On the bright side, all other Wii services, including the Wii Shop Channel, will remain available.

Source: Nintendo [http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Wii/Wii-Channels/Wii-Channels-Wii-Nintendo-UK-622384.html]



Permalink

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

The Nintendo Channel is an odd one to get rid of. I never used the thing, but they were so excited when they introduced the thing that I thought they'd keep that one running as long as they could. I know for a fact that people are still buying the Wii.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Server upkeep costs?

Why the hell would they disable these? Not that I mind, it's just odd.

 

[AdamG3691]

Server upkeep costs?

Why the hell would they disable these? Not that I mind, it's just odd.

theyre also slowly pulling support for the wii, it makes sense, the WiiU is their main console now. I'm sure microsoft and sony will do the same when their next gen consoles are released

it just so happens that this is the first time a console that has so many features reliant on the internet has been phased out, it's just like taking down servers for old games, they're old, unsupported, and cost money to keep up whilst giving no real profit in return. (the only ones that could even come close to doing so are the nintendo channel, which was pretty much advertising (redundant since they aren't making regular DS or wii games anymore), and the everyone votes channel (survey results could be useful in market research, but wii owners are no longer their focus))

news and weather channel were a free service that cost them money for no returns, and the mii contest channel was just a fun extra.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Seems kind of quick to be removing online features from the Wii to me. It took years for PS2 and Xbox online server to be taken down for certain games.

 

[Deathlyphil]

Server upkeep costs?

Why the hell would they disable these? Not that I mind, it's just odd.

theyre also slowly pulling support for the wii, it makes sense, the WiiU is their main console now. I'm sure microsoft and sony will do the same when their next gen consoles are released

it just so happens that this is the first time a console that has so many features reliant on the internet has been phased out, it's just like taking down servers for old games, they're old, unsupported, and cost money to keep up whilst giving no real profit in return.

We are lucky they have been supporting the Wii as long as they have. When MS announced the 360, they dropped support for the Xbox. Even though this was about six months before the 360's launch.

*Edit
Ok, maybe not completely dropped support, but it certainly became the unwanted and unloved step-child.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Oh noes. I's can't get mii news anymore.

Not a problem considering I only used my Wii to play Game cube games, Super Metroid, Majora's Mask, Smash Bros, and Star Fox

 

[Scrythe]

So does this mean the Wii is finally getting a price drop?

At this point, $150 new is absolutely fucking ridiculous.

 

[AxelxGabriel]

As long as the Wii Store, Netflix and Youtube Channels stay up, I'm good for now.

 

[Covarr]

Will they release a system update to remove the channels, or just leave them there to do nothing? The former seems obvious, but Nintendo has been known to be way out of touch when it comes to things like this.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The Nintendo Channel is an odd one to get rid of. I never used the thing, but they were so excited when they introduced the thing that I thought they'd keep that one running as long as they could. I know for a fact that people are still buying the Wii.

Did that one do anything aside from provide Wii and DS demos? There aren't exactly many new games coming out for either system at this point, so it's actually the most sensible of the bunch to drop support for.

OT: This really won't affect me. I pretty much only use the Wii as a homebrew platform these days (after a hardware modded original Xbox, it's the best media player option for an old SD TV), which means I leave Wii Connect24 off basically at all times to prevent an update coming over and removing my homebrew and/or bricking my hardware without my permission. Most of those services don't work without Wii Connect24. Come to think of it, maybe that's why they're going down -- maybe they're dropping that service, and the services tied to it have to go with it.

 

[Rad Party God]

Well, as long as the YouTube and Netflix channels are left untouched, all is good.

 

[Johnson McGee]

As long as the Wii Store, Netflix and Youtube Channels stay up, I'm good for now.

I imagine they will as long as the store can support itself financially. The other two aren't maintained by Nintendo anyhow so they'll likely stay up too.

 

[mixadj]

I'm assuming that weather and news data is passed through Nintendo's servers? Could you not just use something like the home brew channel and a mod to scrape actual websites for data like the Weather Underground?

 

[xyrafhoan]

The removal of data exchange between friends kind of sucks, even though I really don't use it that much. I'm guessing that axes the ability to send screenshots and stages from SSBB to friends, since it used the message system. But the news and weather channels were pretty meh. Anyone with a computer or even a smartphone probably already has better news feeds. I guess it seems kind of sudden that features are being pulled but it's only been half a year since the WiiU came out.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Meh never really used those anyway so this doesn't bother me any.