Nintendo To Cancel Weather, News, and Other Built-In Wii Apps In June 175
damn_registrars writes "Nintendo has announced that at the end of June it will be canceling the services of several of the channels that are built in to the original Wii, including the Weather, News, Everybody Votes, and Mii Contest. This will also affect the WiiConnect24 services, though should not affect the Wii shopping channel. They added: '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.'"
More Information (Score:5, Informative)
Who referenced Nintendo's "Japan" website: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/information/2013/0412.html [nintendo.co.jp]
And that website in English: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nintendo.co.jp%2Fsupport%2Finformation%2F2013%2F0412.html [google.com]
Re:Translation ... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, the contrary point is the Wii is now 6+ years old, which means they're starting to wind it down.
Nintendo is hardly the first company to do that.
Apple dropped support for the original iPad after barely 2 years (much to my nuisance), people find themselves with phones that don't get updates any more, the Sega and Amiga platforms don't really exist any more, and I'm sure lots of video games have stopped working when the company pulls the servers.
Technology ages, companies decide they don't want to spend the money on the infrastructure any more. I just can't see these network services either being revenue streams or being overly popular/critical.
At a certain point, this kind of thing is pretty much expected. If they were giving up revenue, I'd be surprised, but it sounds more like what happens as the technology ages.
Somehow, I bet if you'd looked at usage for these services, they've probably been flat or declining, at which point why should Nintendo keep it running in perpetuity?
Re:Is Nintendo starting to close up shop? (Score:5, Informative)
The voting was fun though.
Re:Is Nintendo starting to close up shop? (Score:5, Informative)
You are interested in a Wii U yet you call the Wii outdated...
You do realize the Wii U is simply a Wii with 720p and a overpriced external screen that does nothing except show you what is on the TV.
By which you mean a Wii with a better CPU and GPU, 1080p, and an external screen that can act independently of what's shown on the TV [wikipedia.org], right? I know, I know, it's a common mistake to get absolutely everything wrong. Must be your crippling Alzheimer's.
Bro, do you even troll?
Re:#dealwithit (Score:5, Informative)
this wouldn't have happened if Sony had been harmed by removing OtherOS.
Why is that? This is more like Sony turning off the servers for $multiplayer_game than it is them removing OtherOS.
Not saying it's right, only that it is a different scenario.
Re:For that matter... (Score:4, Informative)