Posted in: Movies, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, gaming, nintendo, Nintendo Wii U, video game systems, wifi

Nintendo Shutting Down Wi-Fi Connection For Wii and DS

Published Mon, 03 Mar 2014 23:30:06 -0600

By Daniel Celko

Nintendo has announced a discontinuation of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service for its legacy devices as of May 20, 2014. This means the Wii, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo DSi will be loosing many of their online services.

What does this mean for you?

This mean many of the games on these systems will loose most of their online functionality. This includes online matchmaking, leader boards, sharing of user created levels and ghost data, trading of in-game characters and items, and free DLC.

In essence, any and all online play for these devices will no longer be possible. However, Nintendo assures that all offline features of the games will not be affected and can continued to be used as normal. Also, certain online features not reliant on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection will still be available such as the online shop for the Wii and the Nintendo DSi as well as video-on-demand services.

Personally, I feel it is a little early for Nintendo to be shutting down online play considering the poor popularity of the WiiU. There could be a couple reasons for this move. The first of which is to try to stimulate sales of the WiiU. I sincerely hope this is not the case as it is a choice of desperation and just plain old betrayal of loyal fans.

Another possibility seems more promising however. Keeping online services running takes resources. Servers are occupied and money is spent. By pulling these resources, they are able to put them into something else. Maybe something like a new rumored console/portable game system hybrid known as the Nintendo Fusion.

Now I can't pass judgment on something that hasn't even been officially announce yet. However, with the impressive specs leaked for the new system, this might be the comeback Nintendo needs after the WiiU.

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