Nintendo to Discontinue Online Play for Wii and DS

by
in games on (#3F0)
story imageNintendo has announced the discontinuation of their Wi-Fi Connection Service for the Wii, DS, and DSi systems. Over 400 titles are affected, including Mario Kart Wii.

Engadget reports:
Services that will keep working on the DS after May include the DSi Shop, DS Browser, and DSi Browser, while the Wii keeps Netflix, Hulu, Wii Shop Channel, Internet Channel, Pay and Play and YouTube.
Could the slow sales of the Wii U be motivating this move? Will casual gamers be put off by this and hurt the company's future sales?
Reply 12 comments

Totally off-topic, but... (Score: 3, Interesting)

by unitron@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 03:21 (#7S)

...is the blue here a lot greener than it was a few days ago?

And can I have the old blue if you're not using it anymore?

Re: Totally off-topic, but... (Score: 3, Informative)

by codersean@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 03:30 (#7T)

Looks blue to me with a hint of purple. Still is better than the red over at soylentnews.org.

Re: Totally off-topic, but... (Score: 1)

by unitron@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 04:07 (#7V)

Right now it looks like a whole lot of green has been added to what they had the other day.

At least on my monitor.

Re: Totally off-topic, but... (Score: 4, Informative)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 10:31 (#82)

Nope, same blue (#506890) that I've been using for over 15 years.

I love Pipedot (Score: 5, Insightful)

by survivorz@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 04:48 (#7W)

Pipedot is my favorite slashdot! But it's so dead over here ;(

Re: I love Pipedot (Score: 0)

by survivorz@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 04:48 (#7X)

Let's see if it supports the UTF-8 Ellipsis

It doesn't! It crashes hARD!!!

error: invalid value - method [post] type [string] name [comment] value [Pipedot is my favorite slashdot! But it's so dead over here ;( Let's see if it supports the UTF-8 Ellipsis]

IT's 2014 already! You SHOULD SUPPORT UTF-8 characters! Particularly punctuation like the ellipsis. You certainly shouldn't crash the page on a single multibyte character!

Re: I love Pipedot (Score: 4, Informative)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 10:37 (#83)

See comment #104. More characters will be added when it's ready.

Re: I love Pipedot (Score: 2)

by quadrox@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 08:13 (#7Z)

Not anymore, now I am here too. Had no idea this existed also, looks like there are more/different needs than on the red site. Cool!

Probably won't help Wii U (Score: 5, Insightful)

by mth@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 10:07 (#81)

If it's a cost-cutting operation, it might be related to the poor Wii U sales. If they're doing it in the hope Wii owners will buy a Wii U, I doubt that will work. I have a Wii and I never played online with it, so some users won't even notice the difference. People who will miss online play have to buy a new system and new games, so there is nothing that binds them to Nintendo. And since Nintendo was the one who switched off the online component for a system that was sold less than half a year ago, I don't expect they'll get much loyalty from those users.

Re: Probably won't help Wii U (Score: 4, Informative)

by tempest@pipedot.org on 2014-02-28 15:12 (#8A)

I'd say its a matter of cost cutting, but I wouldn't say it's unique to Nintendo. I bought Grand Tourismo 5 a week ago, the DLC voucher is only good for another two months and will then be unavailable. After 2 years availability of online play is fairly iffy. It seems like game companies have caught on that you can showcase online play as a feature, then pull the plug earlier to push purchases closer to the release date. You don't have to put up with the never ending resale market, or people like me who wait at least a year for the price to drop to $20.

Nintendo are idiots (Score: 4, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-02-28 14:43 (#89)

Can't they get their heads around the idea that what I really want is an up to date system that will play their entire catalogue of games which comes with the controllers required to do so and with wireless controllers optional at a cost which won't make my wallet cry?

Okay, the Wii is a good start. Wired classic controller can be had quite cheaply. The new games are quite expensive, signature nintendo there, but the old games are way over priced. Also, I can't buy Japanese games for my Australian wii! Gaaaaaaaah!

So, I use my PC. Thanks Nintendo. I am trying to redo my childhood here and you are not helping.

Re: Nintendo are idiots (Score: 5, Funny)

by beldin@pipedot.org on 2014-03-01 20:13 (#8G)

I don't know about you, but if I play games from my childhood, I sincerely hope to mess up a lot less than I did back then...