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Nintendo To Cancel Weather, News, and Other Built-In Wii Apps In June
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.'"
this is the future of gaming if the publishers get their way.
i had a wii years ago and after setting these up out f curiosity i never used these services
the GUI for anything but gaming is pretty limited by the controller
Since nobody actually uses these things, we're turning them off.
Back when I had a Wii, in order to get these network services, you essentially had to set the device to never turn off. And that was something I deemed as pointless and a waste of power.
And, really, who needs to get the weather and news on the Wii?
But, somehow everybody seems to keep acting as if the game console is going to become your internet hub.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Dear Loyal Customers,
Fuck U
Waaahaa!,
Nintendo
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
I liked the weather app on the Wii....
But, how odd when you still have the Wii console on sale in retail store shelves and you're ending support?
It seems like they are pulling the plug a bit early.
I've sold my wii probably 3 years ago I wasn't playing it but those were features that I once enjoyed. I'm disappointed that as a console reaches it's end of life that the company can just go and switch off services for it. I know these are added features that don't hinder game play but it still seems like they are taking something people have paid for away. I realize that online services can be costly but this disconnection seems premature. The WiiU only came out at the end of last year and 6 months later they are starting to abandon services on the previous one. That's a shame. In this case I think how Microsoft supports it's products is better. Give it and end of life time frame like their OS's get. Maybe I missed the news but it seems rather abrupt to me and rather soon after the release of the WiiU.
I'm just anecdotal evidence, but I have always seen plenty of WiiU boxes on the floor at my local Best Buy. I don't think sales have been as brisk as they've hoped, and I personally believe there intentionally poor distribution to cause the illusion of shortages to defend the poor sales. Anyone who wanted one could pick up a phone and discover there was a stack of them here.
I recall when the Wii was released, no matter who you called, nobody had it.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Or, you know, people could still use it to, oh let's see ... play games?
I doubt that the networking features are the most used aspects of these consoles.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
They need some games. If Nintendo can come out with exclusives like Mario Kart and Zelda and Super Mario Galaxy for Wii U, then it will start to take off. Right now, the only great game is Mario. Everything else is just OK to poor.
They may succeed yet if Microsoft and Sony continue in their game console missteps, but I'm betting that Ouya takes off in a big way.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Article from Engadget (Mentions Japan only): http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/12/nintendo-to-retire-some-wii-network-services-june-28/
Who referenced Nintendo's "Japan" website: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/information/2013/0412.html
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
I see various posts on here talking about how nobody used those features, or how this is normal EOL, or even berating Nintendo for doing this. But this is not an issue specific to the Wii, Nintendo, or even to consoles in general. This is the future of cloud based computing combined with locked down devices.
As long as we allow the manufacturers of devices (whether it be a gaming console, a tablet, a phone, or even a desktop PC) to control what software we run and what services we connect to, we do not own the device. The manufacturer does, and they can (and have repeatedly proven they will) remove features at their whim.
Unfortunately people haven't learned from the many, many examples in the past, and they keep lining up to thrown money at companies who are actively hostile toward their user base. Until that stops, nothing will change.
If you want ANY feature on a device, you better be sure that you have enough control of the device, and of the service supporting it, that the manufacturer can't remove it, because if they can, they will. It's only a question of when.
It is irritating to hear of companies doing this because basically they do it just to disrupt someones routine. These services cost the company very little to operate as they were being run on a cloud where where they consume insubstaintial resources and only when the services are actually used. Its hard to believe they will save anything from this.
Actually, we have one. It is our first gaming console..
We waiting until our kids were old enough to handle the responsibility. My son plays Lego Star Wars games as much as we allow it, my daughter plays her Hello Kitty game and we all like to play Just Dance 4 (also a good way for sedentary types to get up and burn some calories).
How much does it cost for Nintendo to leave these services running? I hope they at least push an update to the OS so it doesn't show errors / blacked out squares on the screen where these features used to exist.
I miss the days of having consoles that didn't have retroactive feature loss.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
They're removing services for an outdated and redundant console- this is far from closing up shop (in fact, based on the article, the shop is specifically left open!)
Currently and regrettably, they're following the same trend that many publishers are- with the new and improved version out, they're shuttering the old one. Who needs all this on the Wii when the Wii U is out? Thankfully these functions were little more than a novelty anyway rather than an actual game, but this is the reality of the world we live in now. We can't keep servers running forever for outdated things- and the difference between this and what EA usually does is, these services were up and around a lot longer, heh.
I'm interested in the Wii U, but until more actual interesting games are on it I'll be passing, but the DS had a similarly slow start and ended up being probably my favorite gaming device of all time. We'll see what happens here.
Irony Captcha: Perishes
If I want to watch YouTube, I have other devices which still connect to my network.
Are these "other devices" connected to displays the size of a living room TV, or are they stuck on a 19-23" desktop computer monitor? I'm told there aren't a lot of people willing to hook a PC up to a TV. Or has this changed recently?
Outdated? You could still buy a new Wii through normal retail channels in 2012 (maybe you still can). Less than a year of support is the standard now? That's shameful. Not that I know anyone who uses a wii for news and weather, but still.
Not antiquated, just different from yours.
I won't connect a game console to the internet, because that brings absolutely no benefit to me that I've been able to discover.
The XBox and EA have shown me the future of network connected gaming consoles, and it involves advertisements and DRM.
I don't play any on-line games because I don't want to, because I have no need to have my ass handed to me by a 9 year old, and because I only game a little.
You can feel free to provide an advertising platform, an opportunity to monetize all aspects of game play, and have EA tell you how and when you can use your video game, not to mention the trove of personal information they probably tie to your online account.
But they've already demonstrated that networking quickly turns into a negative feature. I'm not paying full price for a game and paying for my internet connection so they can put ads into the game console. I value my privacy and peace a little more than that. MS and EA already showed me that it's all about them and maximizing revenues, not giving me the best gaming experience.
In fact, I don't believe a single one of my friends has their XBox of PS3 connected to their network. Either because they've got modded consoles, don't want to see ads, or don't play games online.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
For a moment, I seriously wondered whether they could do that. But if anyone could cancel the weather, and the news, it'd probably be Nintendo.
The voting was fun though.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
I just wish it was not a half baked platform. The big display remotes should be seperate screens so that Mario Kart would have the Big TV a overhead display and the remote is your driving display, or, status information control display with a 4 split screen on the big TV..
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I'm hoping that they do succeed to be honest, if only for the sake of offering people an alternative...if even one choice disappears in the game industry, there aren't many left to choose from. I don't know that Nintendo's own exclusives would save the system though... Look at the exclusives the system actually -has-:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_U_games
Mario Kart, Mario 3D, Game Wario (related in a married-your-cousin sort of way I suppose)...and some of the most popular titles for the system are for the Virtual Console, which isn't really a selling point.
"You can buy all your favourite games again for the new system!"
"And why wouldn't I just plug the old system in?"
"...PROFIT!"
"...or for that matter not pay $300 for your console and just play the games on my laptop with an emul..."
"PROFIT!!!"
In fact I would argue that "PROFIT" is exactly what the real problem with the Wii U is -- ZombiU costs something like $60 here. Granted, games like Far Cry and Halo 4 don't do much to justify their prices beyond looking really good, but that's not the point... Even I would consider buying the Wii U and the games if they were both realistically priced. Asking people to pay pre-order prices for games that aren't that good upon launch isn't the best way to get your console flying off the shelves. If the Wii U was around $100 and the games around $20, I wouldn't be here posting this because I'd be off playing their games!
My local Gamestop had a WiiU kiosk up recently. All that was playable on it was some version of Mario that looked exactly like the old 80's era Mario. I played it for a few minutes and was decidedly underwhelmed. I'm not sure if this was due to their ill-advised choice of software for their kiosk or just because the novelty of the second screen wore off a lot faster than the sense that the actual controller was very awkward in my hands. Maybe they have some great new games coming for it in the future. But I imagine that by the time they get here, I'll already own a PS4 or Xbox 720.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Perhaps outdated was a poor choice of words- but the console was released almost 7 years ago, and those services not TOO long after. While I can see where you're coming from with "less than a year of support", I believe that's slightly disingenuous, given the many years of life these services have had. And beyond that, the Wii U performs MOST of the functions the Wii did, plus many extra (Only backwards compatible hardware of this generation, possibly- we don't know for sure with the Xbox 720.)
Don't get me wrong- I'm not happy about this, I wasted more time than I care to admit just spinning the globe on the weather channel, but all the same I find it hard to be surprised about this. All in all I'm more upset that this has become such an industry trend, which is why I hesitate to buy games that are focused on online multiplayer.
It's funny that there are plenty of legitimate gripes about the Wii U, but you fail to mention any of them.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
I recall when the Wii was released, no matter who you called, nobody had it.
Not just right around launch time, but for over a year.
Ugh. Forgive me, I misread your post, Lumpy, regarding definition. The point is I know it's not an overly powerful console. It's still a step up from the Wii, but I don't and never have bought Nintendo for specs. I prefer using computers for most games that need more power than the Wii/Wii U can put out, which is why I haven't invested in the PS3/4, or the Xbox.
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, 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?
My Wii is used primarily by my 8 yro for Lego Games, and Netflix - I bet that is 90-95% of how Wii's are used anyway.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
meh, dont even remember last time it was powered on.
One nice thing about the Wii was the free multiplayer gaming; no subscription to xbox live or any such. Granted the game play was a little less stellar than other consoles, but you could still play COD online with no hassle. I hope that isn't being killed along with the rest of this.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
The cynic in me would say "Gee, why not the shopping channel? Guess everything but 'buy more crap' gets the axe", but then again, yes, that's pretty much it. Shopping channel may make a dime or two, but the rest ... who needs it? Weather channel? Flip the TV channel over to the one that is actually relevant for you, where's the need for a weather channel on a Wii? Same goes for news and the rest, you can't even argue that you lose anything that you didn't already have in another way, essentially, it was surplus.
It's fascinating how people start yammering about the sky falling and the Wii being retired. Well, considering how old it is, maybe it's about time to do just that, but so far I can't see anything pointing towards Nintendo dropping the Wii altogether. Where it's pretty much common that servers get shut down and games, not just some braindead service with very limited use, games you bought and paid for, become "retired", forced out of your hands, it's quite odd that people complain about Nintendo shutting off some service you didn't even pay for explicitly (unless someone really wants to claim that this was the feature why they bought the Wii... please, say that with a straight face!).
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You do realize* the Wii U is simply a Wii
With an updated CPU and GPU and a lot more RAM.
with 720p
1080p.
and an overpriced
Says you.
external screen that does nothing except show you what is on the TV
...or anything else the system wants to show, and is also an input device.
I was going to get one until I realized it offered nothing at all over the Wii.
It may not offer enough for you, but it's just being churlish to suggest that that equates to "nothing." You sound like Grandpa Simpson when he said that a fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
If 19-23" is good enough for the user, then probably. If not, they've probably hooked it up to a larger display.
I've noticed a correlation: a small monitor for small budget works and a large monitor for large budget works. Producers of large budget works tend to have more marketing money to get into the walled gardens (BD and Netflix for movies, console app stores for games) supported by devices marketed for connecting to large screens. It's easier to view small budget works on PCs, but PCs are generally not marketed for connecting to large screens.
Why does somebody else's use case for media consumption matter to you?
Somebody else's use case for viewing works would matter to a producer of works because a producer has to reach the audience on devices that the audience already owns.
PS3 as a inferior MythTV frontend compared to a $39.00 Raspberry Pi.
If you've already bought a PS3 to play PS3 games, then its inferior MythTV frontend costs $0.00 extra. A Raspberry Pi, on the other hand, costs $39.00 extra plus shipping.
So I can return my old Wii and get a full refund? I mean, with Nintento willingly crippling it and disabling features I've paid for?
I honestly thought he died back in the 90's.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Thankfully these functions were little more than a novelty anyway rather than an actual game, but this is the reality of the world we live in now. We can't keep servers running forever for outdated things- and the difference between this and what EA usually does is, these services were up and around a lot longer, heh.
Ok, I know we're not originally talking game servers here, but your comments about the world we live in brings up a point. We need to work more on peer-to-peer tech. Not to pirate these always-online games, but to push the cost of running a game server onto the users. If each player pays a little bit in CPU, disk space, and bandwidth, a currency they're already willing to expend just playing the game in the first place, then as long as there are people playing, there will be servers. Of course this won't happen from big studios, it removes their control. But littler studios can do it, particularly indies, because what indy can afford to maintain a huge server farm?
u mad bro?
Yes, because of a few fluff features that weren't often used being disabled, the Wii is a boat anchor.
Sure.
Right.
It was already doorstop if you didn't care about the games that were on it, which is the primary point of the damn thing. This doesn't change anything.
The replacement Wii-only compatible hardware coming only plays Wii games. It's a Wii-lite with no online component, that is the motivation for canceling the Wii services. Otherwise, they could have just left them running as "lite" versions of the data they push to Wii U.
Oh. My. God. Lego City Undercover. Forget everything else, even Mario.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
As recently as last year you had people pointing to Wii sales and claiming, smugly, that Nintendo was the real boss in the console wars. This was, oh, 4 years after anyone with half a brain could see Nintendo was doomed no matter how many Wiis that people bought and played for 3 months then left to collect dust.
The Wii was always a gimmick. High definition does matter, and the base of games you offer matters. It has mattered since the day the Wii was released, only it's innovative, at the time, controller was a selling point that made it a temporary fad.
Sorry, nostalgic Gen Xers, Nintendo is dead meat.
the only thing I've heard about wii-u from my gamer friends is that if you post enough dick picks on a drawing multiplayer game you'll get a ban. it's seriously lacking in titles that would make it worthwhile.
and for some reason, I've yet to see a game graphics wise that could not have been a wii title.the display in the controller would be fun if it supported more than one(the vmu's in dreamcast was great for party games!).
one peculiar thing about the wii-u though: WHAT THE FUCK DOES THE OS NEED 1 GIG OF RAM FOR????!#?"#??#!?nintendo selling your console time as a cloud service??
for most it does offer nothing over the wii since for most what the wii offers is wii bowling.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Lego City Undercover is an absolutely fantastic game that's WiiU exclusive.
There are some other good games, but most of them are multiplatform, so they're not a reason to get a WiiU.
Probably so it can run a full web browser and a game at the same time. (Whether it's the built in web-browser or the Miiverse or eShop versions.)
It's not just about control. You can't trust users in games.
Also I dunno if you've ever played the CoD MW games where someone served as the game "host" and peers connected to them, but it fucking sucks for reasons other then there just being a bazillion cheaters. Things like bad connection to whoever gets decided as host, host rage-quits requiring the game to try and start on another host (or just drop everyone) and all the other little problems with network irregularity when you have no real control over where you connect.
So as a player, all I can think when reading things like "we need more p2p in games" is for the love of god I hope no more developers make that stupid ass mistake. Just release a linux/windows server, let gamers run their own, let server providers run it, and we'll figure it out.
As far as consoles go, if you buy them and expect "online" features to be running long without being able to have user created apps that keep them going, you're silly.
Not really any big deal to me, or my kids, which seem to be more entertained with their iPod or DS these days anyway. Given their ease of use and cost (our used iPhones turned into iPods for them) I'm wondering if I'll even invest in the next console from any maker. I'd thought about the next Xbox as my kids mature but I'm not so sure given the reports. There's so much entertainment for them already, I'd rather them be outside playing or interacting with friends or reading and less screen time, not more.
Part of me wonders if this is because these are the exact features the Wii U doesn't support in its Wii mode, so it removes a reason someone might replace their broken Wii with a new Wii instead of a Wii U... but I also wonder how many zombie-Wiis are out there, downloading weather and new Miis every night, even though they haven't been turned on in years. It reminds me of the cost of running the HTML DTD servers, constantly serving millions of completely unnecessary requests.
On the one hand, I'm not a big fan of functionality being removed from a device, but given it's dependent on a server farm somewhere to run, it stands to reason they'd sunset it eventually. That said, nobody (myself included) used these services. The Wii takes forever to boot up (even from sleep), and I have to figure out where the kids hid the remote to drive it. Then the weather app is only updated every 8 hours, and is telling me the weather of the town two towns away because that's the closest one in their system. It was vaguely neat in 2008 when I got my Wii, but now my wife and I have iPhones and an iPad, which we've found to be slowly replacing all functionality formerly done by our Wii... Main thing we do with it these days is stream Netflix. On the other hand, a lot of people are using their Wii's to stream Netflix... http://techmedianow.blogspot.com/2011/07/25-of-us-netflix-users-using-wii-to.html
What's Gabe going to do now?
Worst. Signature. Ever.
Reading only half a headline can make your head spin.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
This will be interesting. I've seen Wii consoles used in the odd hotel lobby outputting to a tv, just running the news feed. Much cheaper and easier for the average person to set up than a PC or paying subscriptions to a news service.
- This sig deliberately left blank. Nothing to see, move along.
You can buy a lot of old crap in the stores after the new ones are announce. I can go out right now and get a new mobile phone plan with a Samsung Galaxy S2, new, not refurbished. That phone is no longer supported. Not only is a it's successor on the market but it's about to become obsolete too.
Why anyone would go and buy a Wii knowing full well the Wii U was just getting released and then EXPECT long term support is beyond me. It really is outdated in every sense of the word.
and for some reason, I've yet to see a game graphics wise that could not have been a wii title
Oh you mean like apart from the basic release titles? Maybe you have rose coloured glasses on or you just don't remember but the Wii was incredibly underpowered. Sure you could make Super Mario Wii-U run on the Wii content wise, but without the high def graphics, environmental lighting, or any of the other eye-candy that makes it look different from it's predecessor.
Unless I've missed something recently, this Wii-lite is only sold in Canada so far. The standard Wii with full online access is sold everywhere else, including in Canada alongside the new Wii Mini.
Nintendoland is very good. ZombiU is very good. But I agree, more good games are needed.
Why anyone would go and buy a Wii knowing full well the Wii U was just getting released and then EXPECT long term support is beyond me. It really is outdated in every sense of the word.
Because not everyone knew full well a new Wii U was coming out. You are by definition of this site a technical person, therefore you tend to keep up with trends in the tech market. You knew a Wii U was coming, but the average Joe who picked up a steal of a Wii on sale back at Christmas for his kids because he couldn't afford it earlier in his job as a laborer is not going to be thrilled about this.
I tend to agree with others here; this is expected and normal behaviour... but only a few months after the release of the new console is actually pretty crappy of Nintendo.
I'm sorry but Joe Average can not conceivably think that a 6 year old device won't be replaced shortly. Joe Way-Below-Average maybe which also explains why someone wasn't able to afford the single cheapest console on the market for 6 years. But no normal person has been screwed by Nintendo here.
Not to mention that they dropped support for something that is incredibly minor in the nintendo universe. Seriously I've used the weather app once, out of curiosity. No one buys a wii just so they can watch the weather and vote on a stupid question of the week.
Someone in the hacking comminity will create a channel via Homebrewthat mimics the functions of these defunct channels. For news and weather, they will get the information from some free public RSS-type feed.
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That and the fact that the PS3 supports more formats than the RPi for playback, not counting the fact that you can play games on it. Plus RPi doesn't do Netflix or Amazon Instant Video.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Agreed! My daughters spent more time voting and drawing Miis than they did playing the games.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai