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[Petrae]

This should be the beginning of the end for Wii online services. Not surprised that Wii Shop still exists, but its day of reckoning is coming-- I suspect by the end of next year.

Eliminating online services for Wii not only saves Nintendo money, but also hopefully propels legacy Wii owners towards WiiU while making the Wii Mini more viable for wider release as online will be less and less important for the platform.

 

[rjc571]

Impressive that Nintendo had these still running three years after the death of the system.

In the last 3 years Nintendo has released a 3D Mario game, a Zelda game, a Metroid game, a Donkey Kong Country game, 2 Kirby games, Xenoblade, Last Story, Pandora's Tower, Sin & Punishment 2, and more. That's a lot of support for a dead system.

 

[Axiom]

I have not spun the globe in the Weather channel for years, but when I did I really enjoyed it and wished for it to become a standard next gen feature.


Alas.

 

[m.i.s.]

Nintendo UK -

We would like to inform you that a portion of the online services offered through the
Wii console will be discontinued from 28th June 2013.

We apologise to those of you currently using these services.

The affected applications are as follows:

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

* Exchange of Wii messages on the Wii Message Board, exchange of Mii characters on
the Mii Channel and message/data exchange within some games will be disabled.

From 28th June 2013, the above services will no longer be available even if they are 
started up from the Wii Menu.

However, services other than those mentioned above, such as the Wii Shop Channel 
and “Today’s Accomplishments” on the Wii Message Board, will remain available

 

[Flame Lord]

Eh, nothing important.

 

[Like the hat?]

My wife will be sad to lose her 98% accuracy ratings everyone votes

 

[Night_Trekker]

Lame. I really enjoyed vegging out and reading AP news reports. Sucks they won't port these to the WiiU

 

[Haunted]

In the last 3 years Nintendo has released a 3D Mario game, a Zelda game, a Metroid game, a Donkey Kong Country game, 2 Kirby games, Xenoblade, Last Story, Pandora's Tower, Sin & Punishment 2, and more. That's a lot of support for a dead system.

Well you know, they're still making Dreamcast shmups.

 

[Davey Cakes]

In the end I probably used the Check Mii Out channel the most. Got a bunch of good Miis off of there from some talented Mii creators. I always hated how it restricted names, though. I couldn't always tell what Miis were based solely on initials.

It'd be neat if another channel like that was made for the Wii U and 3DS Mii Creators.

And as someone else said, incorporating a voting/polling mechanism into Miiverse would be a worthy replacement for the Everybody Votes Channel, which was actually a bit fun to use but could benefit greatly from better integration.

 

[rjc571]

Well you know, they're still making Dreamcast shmups.

Sega is?

 

[RPGCrazied]

Sad. I don't plan on getting a Wii U anytime soon, and I still used some of these features. Oh well, mostly I just play gamecube and netflix on it nowadays.

 

[DarkPanda]

I kind of miss the old days when the Wii was new and I would log in to Everybody Votes every day. It was fun, but then the newness wore off and I fell out of the habit. I can kind of understand why they're doing it, but I still think it's a little early. The WiiU hasn't even been out a full year yet.

 

[Chronos24]

Only one I cared about was everyone votes channel. Some of the questions were really good ones

 

[kswiston]

Loosing my activity list will be painful. I love seeing my playtimes for each game.

 

[khaaan]

So, does this mean we can delete all these off the console permanently since they won't be of use anymore?

Delete? You're supposed to keep those for memories =P
I still have the Metroid Prime 3 channel.

 

[donny2112]

Services that will end include:

Weather channel
Digicam Print channel
News channel
Everyone Votes channel
Nintendo channel
Mii Contest channel
Data exchange with friends through Wii Connect 24*

*Includes exchanging of Miis, messages, and data from select games.

Services such as the Wii Shopping channel and the playlog in the Wii Messageboard will not be affected.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/information/2013/0412.html

Was just doing the Everyone Votes channel last night. Wow. Nintendo Channel is gone? Oh, man. Hope they still put up the E3 videos there before bringing it all down on June 28. Maybe they'll start doing that kind of videos on 3DS eShop, then.

making the Wii Mini more viable for wider release as online will be less and less important for the platform.

As long as Netflix keeps working on Wii, Wii will still be extremely viable for its online services.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Never understood why they didnt put those services also on 3DS or WiiU...i mean they are already there ? Why not port them to you current systems ?

Because nobody cares.

 

[Asimov]

Delete? You're supposed to keep those for memories =P
I still have the Metroid Prime 3 channel.

Wow... so I am not the only one! Nostalgia is a bitch.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Impressive that Nintendo had these still running three years after the death of the system.

Zelda came out in 2011 dawg.

 

[EvilMario]

I actually wouldn't mind a weather widget of some sort on my Wii U when I boot it up. Or a news feed even. I did enjoy spinning the globe and selecting news by regions. For the first six months of my Wiis life, that was a good majority of what I did on it.

Even the Voting channel was interesting. I think it would work well on the 3DS and Wii U. I admittedly haven't used it in years, but that has more to do with the infrequency of which I've been using my Wii.

 

[gravitypenguin]

Well that's saddening. Everybody votes was my favorite nongame thing on the Wii.

Spinning the weather globe wasn't bad either.

 

[Nintendude712]

The one that hits me the most is the WC24... that means it'll be just like the Wii U.
No more ACCF DLC, auction house, HRA.
No more ghost sharing with friends in MKWii.
No more friend vouchers in Metroid Prime Trilogy.
No more stage/ image/ replay sharing on Brawl.
No more online play with friends in games that use the Message Board's Friend Code (Like Guitar Hero 5 which I still play with my friend.... I know, lol).
No more Check Mii Out Miis on Wii Sports Resort.
No more sharing your micro games on WarioWare DYI WiiWare.
etc
etc

Will miss the Nintendo Channel, and I used to use the Everybody Votes and Check Mii Out Channels religiously back then, now not so much but the nostalgia is a bitch indeed.
I also still have the Metroid Prime 3 Preview Channel lol Glad I'm not the only one.

oh well, after June 28th I'll just transfer my Wii data over to my Wii U. No point in keeping it on there anymore. I was hoping Nintendo would update Wii mode to add the missing features but guess that's not happening now that they're removing them from the Wii.

 

[DJ_Lae]

Never used any of them.

Whenever I left WiiConnect on (or whatever it's called) I would get visual artifacts in my games. I always wanted to try out everybody votes, too.

 

[sublimit]

I used to like the weather channel.Was pretty accurate too.

 

[Nintendude712]

Never used any of them.

Whenever I left WiiConnect on (or whatever it's called) I would get visual artifacts in my games. I always wanted to try out everybody votes, too.

WiiConnect24 is only a service. What you're talking about is the stand-by mode which you can turn off in the system settings.

Anyways I've been using stand-by mode for years and my Wii is just fine, but that's just me.


Talking about stand-by mode, they should add it on the Wii U. Even the 3DS has it ("Sleep mode").

 

[Effect]

The Nintendo Channel should be kept. In fact that should be on the Wii U. Having all of the various trailers, Nintendo Directs, etc in one place is excellent.

 

[Berordn]

The Nintendo Channel should be kept. In fact that should be on the Wii U. Having all of the various trailers, Nintendo Directs, etc in one place is excellent.

Well, the eShop can do the same thing and takes your money in the process...

 

[Boerseun]

Well that sucks! I use the Weather and News channels on a regular Basis.

Also, why in the heck would they drop the Nintendo channel? It's such an integral part of the Wii experience.

 

[Effect]

Well, the eShop can do the same thing and takes your money in the process...

True but liked how the Nintendo Channel just listed everything in one place in the order they were uploaded.

 

[Nekofrog]

Never understood why they didnt put those services also on 3DS or WiiU...i mean they are already there ? Why not port them to you current systems ?

Like the WiiU needs anymore bloat to slog through.

 

[Miroku129]

What is a "Wii Channel"?

Ahhhh... I remember them >_>

 

[Count Dookkake]

.

 

[JustinBB7]

Haven't touched my Wii in years, but I always liked the news and weather channels. That music was very soothing. I doubt I'll get a Wii U anytime soon but if I ever do I hope they add it back.

 

[Quadraphonic]

I wish those apps would have gotten Wii U upgrades.

Heck, Everybody Votes seems perfectly tailored for the connected 3DS. And Weather/News are perfect for handheld devices.

Edit:
WC24 (IE: The thing that turned your Wii into a fucking boiling hot box of plastic) means no more online games?

 

[hunnies28]

Don't know how to feel.
I enjoyed using those channels back in their time. But it's been years since I last used any of them.

 

[Grok4Spock]

Nintendo UK -

We would like to inform you that a portion of the online services offered through the Wii console 
will be discontinued from 28th June 2013.

We apologise to those of you currently using these services.

The affected applications are as follows:

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

* Exchange of Wii messages on the Wii Message Board, exchange of Mii characters on the Mii 
Channel and message/data exchange within some games will be disabled.

From 28th June 2013, the above services will no longer be available even if they are started up 
from the Wii Menu.

However, services other than those mentioned above, such as the Wii Shop Channel 
and “Today’s Accomplishments” on the Wii Message Board, will remain available

Iwata: Please understand

 

[something fishy]

can't say I've used them in a long time so not to worry.

 

[Levyne]

I used to love "Everybody Votes" back in the day.

 

[TalesOfWin]

when Nintendo shuts down a service: Meh nobody cares anyway.

when EA shuts down a service for an old game: RAGE!!!!

 

[aceface]

No Nintendo Channel??? My kids watch Mario videos on there daily.

 

[ksamedi]

I didn't even use those services after a few weeks. They were pretty crappy IMO.

 

[tsab]

Hopefully we'll see some a freaking channels to Wii U now. Like a photochannel or a mp3/aac/ player heh Nintendo?
Man, WiiU only plays games, but they aren't so many.

when Nintendo shuts down a service: Meh nobody cares anyway.

when EA shuts down a service for an old game: RAGE!!!!

old game=15month game
John Riccitiello: *laughs*

 

[Stet]

when Nintendo shuts down a service: Meh nobody cares anyway.

when EA shuts down a service for an old game: RAGE!!!!

Well yeah, but Nintendo's services aren't games.

 

[m.i.s.]

I'm slightly impressed the Everyone Votes Channel lasted this long. I got bored of it after the first week or so.

Got bored of it after the first couple-of-hours or so. p

I don't care what anyone says, Weather Channel was amazing. I'd spin that globe with that music everyday before school when it first came out

I found it to be a really informative way to present the info and navigation was such a breeze.

Is there going to be a firmware update to delete the redundant weather and news channels?

I can't say I'll miss any of them though. Manpower devoted to these channels should be rerouted to Nintendo's No 1 priority - the development of Wii U games.

 

[Brainiac 8]

Ok fellow Gaf, with this info...is there someone willing to throw a bunch of friend vouchers at me for Metroid Prime 3? I would be eternally grateful.

PM me if you are will to do so.

 

[JimboJones]

when Nintendo shuts down a service: Meh nobody cares anyway.

when EA shuts down a service for an old game: RAGE!!!!

Are you being funny or serious?

The only channel that I think is kind of missed is the photo channel, it was pretty sweet way of displaying photos, could have expanded video format support on the WiiU. Most of the others are pretty redundent with the browser support and eShop.

 

[ash_ag]

Weird how Google released the YouTube app like a couple months before this. Seems like they did it just for the fun of it.

 

[Kai Dracon]

The Wii services were really not bad ideas. History just ended up being against them. The kind of online-enabled interaction they offered doesn't seem dissimilar to apps that ended up populating smartphones, browser-based social networks, etc.

Plus the gaming set should remember they weren't aimed primarily at the enthusiast gamer but a wider audience. The whole thing is reminiscent of the 'web tv' model that everyone was chasing for a long time since the 90's.

The funny thing about Everybody Votes is that the Wii did end up having a large userbase, and voting could be kind of interesting to see what so many people thought.

 

[Mystery-white-boy]

Everybody Votes... :-(

I've been neglecting it recently, but it used to be great fun opening this up every couple of weeks with my housemates, arguing over some utterly trivial question, then comparing our (essentially meaningless) stats. Oh well, I guess we'd better make the most of it for the next few months before it disappears. How am I gonna break the news to them? ;-)

And as easy as it is to dismiss the whole concept as empty and pointless, there were occasions when the polls produced some genuinely interesting results, especially when it came to the worldwide polls. Comparing and contrasting the opinions of different nationalities was always fun. Also, without Everybody Votes I would never have discovered that the majority of the UK populace washes their hands without wetting them prior to applying the soap. WHAT?!!!

Oh, and here's something that any fan of Idle Thumbs and Everybody Votes (that's got to be a pretty small crossover) should appreciate:

 

[Quadraphonic]

You know what's sad?

This thread is only 3 pages after a full day in the news. While this sucks, and it should be on the WiiU/3DS, the fact that there's THIS MUCH apathy towards it says a LOT.