Friday, January 25, 2019

Closing the Wii Shop Channel

PSA: Nintendo is Closing the Wii Shop Channel on January 30th


Wii Shop Channel
Nintendo

I remember when the Wii first came out—such a killer and innovative (for the time) console. But all good things must come to an end, and its time is coming as Nintendo slowly shuts down services on the aging platform.
Nintendo initially announced that it was sunsetting all video streaming service on the Wii as of January 31st, 2019, but that date will also see the closure of the Wii Shop Channel. It’s unlikely that many people are still using the Shop Channel, but here’s your reminder: if you have pending Points, it’s time to use them now.
As Lifehacker points out in its excellent post on the matter, there are still a few things you may want to do before the Wii loses all touch with the outside world:
The Wii has had a nice, long run, but it’s about to get a little lonelier come January 31, when Nintendo plans to shut down the Wii Shop Channel. That means no more buying games online, no more downloading games you’ve previously purchased, and no more Wii Transfer tool, which allows you to transfer digitally purchased games from the Wii to its successor, the Wii U. By turning these tools off, Nintendo is effectively shutting down the last vestiges of support for the Wii.
So, maybe fire the old girl up one last time to run through the Shop and make sure there’s nothing that you’ve been putting off for the past decade or so because once the shop is closed, that’s it. You’ll still be able to play your existing games—many of which are still admittedly fun as hell—but that’s about it. No more digital purchases, no more streaming video. The end of an era.
As an aside, if anyone wants to come over and throw some Wii Bowling with me for old times’ sake, hit me up and let’s make it happen.

No comments:

Post a Comment