Nintendo to Discontinue Online Play for Wii and DS

in games on 2014-02-28 02:11 (#3F0)

Nintendo 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?

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.