Topic: Games removed from Wii U eShop

[ejamer]

So my Wii U wishlist has had The Cave lingering on it for longer than I care to say. The game always intrigued me, but never quite enough to buy at full price so I had been waiting with hopes of a sale. That sale never arrived (as far as I can tell, the game was never marked down, although it's possible that I just missed it when travelling or something) and now the game has been delisted.

Ah, the bright and shiny digital future, where pricing and availability both work in favor of the consumer...  at least that's true some of the time. (Shout out to Atlus for being awesome in supporting their back catalog of games with affordable digital versions!)

Have any other games been delisted without good reason, and is this possibly a sign that Wii U eShop days are numbered?

[Order.RSS]

I gotta check a few of these to be sure, but pretty confident these delistings are/were correct:

-Amazing Spider-Man 1 (Ultimate edition) - Activision lost the rights, physical copies still around.
-Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Activision lost the rights, physical copies still around
-The Cave - Publishing rights reverted back from SEGA to Double Fine, who would need to publish the game themselves if they wanted it back on Wii U. PS3, Xbox 360 versions are also delisted, still available on Steam though.
-Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Was temporarily delisted in NA region, conveniently around the time of the Switch port. Apparantly an error, should be back up, but I haven't checked.
-Earthlock: Festival of Magic - Recently delisted when Earthlock got a major upgrade on almost all platforms except for Wii U. I remember reading on MiiVerse the Wii U version suffered from frequent crashes, perhaps they were unable to fix them?
-Mario & Sonic at the Socchi 2014 Olympic Winter Games - Likely lost the Olympic license, physical copies still around.
-Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Winter Games - Delisted in December 2017. Likely lost the Olympic license, physical copies still around.
-Meme Run - Delisted following a DMCA claim by the owner of the trollface meme.
-Mighty No. 9 - Delisted from the JP eShop June 2018. Not sure if this is worldwide. Physical copies exist.
-New Super Mario Bros. U - Now only available as download in combo pack with New Super Luigi U
-One Piece World Unlimited Red - Delisted in July 2017, physical copies exist only in PAL/JP regions.

Then there's a slew of licensed games all of which I would need to check, but I'm imagining some of the following will definitely disappear at some point, if they haven't already:
Adventure Time (2 games), Ben 10 Omniverse (2 games), the Cartoon Network fighting game, How To Train Your Dragon, Turbo that racing snail, The Smurfs 2, Transformers (2 games), Penguins of Madagascar, Rise of the Guardians, I think there was a Barbie game too.

Hello Kitty Cruisers is definitely still up, went on sale recently. I'm not sure how the Disney products are faring, there's Planes: Fire & Rescue, and the late 2017 release of Cars 3, might be more. There's also a bunch of LEGO games of course, and the Just Dance titles must be a licensing nightmare as well...

EDIT: There's also some video services in various states of delisting. HULU is definitely not up in Canada, might be delisted in USA too. Don't think it was ever in many of the PAL areas. Netflix's app reportedly had a disastrous update recently which crashes the console if you don't exit out to the Home menu during the credits before finishing a movie/episode entirely. Might be delisted in some PAL areas already. Think I read that somewhere, could be wrong. Not sure about Crunchyroll.

[pokepal148]

I believe Wii Street U was delisted also

[ejamer]

Great list!

The odd thing is, almost everything else that was delisted is due to (presumed) licensing issues.  That shouldn't matter for The Cave... and I'd assume that it's not a business case either, where they are trying to avoid competing against other products. I mean, the game was still selling at full price, so it's not like they'd be losing out by making an old version available?

Oh well. Makes me glad physical games are a thing.

[lolmonade]

...does Tvii count?  Man, still my biggest disappointment with the Wii U.

Also, Meme game being delisted because of a DMCA request by the creator of Trollface is the funniest thing I've read in a while.

[Order.RSS]

The odd thing is, almost everything else that was delisted is due to (presumed) licensing issues.  That shouldn't matter for The Cave... and I'd assume that it's not a business case either, where they are trying to avoid competing against other products. I mean, the game was still selling at full price, so it's not like they'd be losing out by making an old version available?

Looks like publishing rights for The Cave reverted back from SEGA to Double Fine Productions between March and April 2018. The Steam page changed publisher, but I guess Double Fine hasn't taken it upon themselves to republish the game on consoles (it's also been delisted on PS3 and Xbox 360 this year, under SEGA the game also disappeared from iOS and Ouya).

Also, Meme game being delisted because of a DMCA request by the creator of Trollface is the funniest thing I've read in a while.

Right?! I added the Reddit post where the Trollface owner mentions why he did it. Proof we live in a post-modern age.

[ShyGuy]

Can't the WiiU have any diginity? It already lost Miiverse...

[ejamer]

...
Looks like publishing rights for The Cave reverted back from SEGA to Double Fine Productions between March and April 2018. The Steam page changed publisher, but I guess Double Fine hasn't taken it upon themselves to republish the game on consoles (it's also been delisted on PS3 and Xbox 360 this year, under SEGA the game also disappeared from iOS and Ouya).
...

Wow. Had no idea - is this kind of stuff common knowledge and I'm just behind the curve?
Although still kind of disappointed, at least it makes sense now!

[Order.RSS]

Wow. Had no idea - is this kind of stuff common knowledge and I'm just behind the curve?
Although still kind of disappointed, at least it makes sense now!

Nah, I doubt this was widely publicised. The only reason I managed to find out is by finding this post on Double Fine's own forum, where their community manager happened to explain the situation. For what it's worth, they do say: "We'll try to get them back, but i'm afraid we can't promise much at the moment!"
But given this was said in early July, and the game disappeared off the eShop somewhere in early April, I don't think it will happen unless there's clear fan demand for the game to return to Wii U.

[pokepal148]

The Cave is still available on Steam though for what it's worth.

[Soren]

So my Wii U wishlist has had The Cave lingering on it for longer than I care to say.

Holy crap, me too.

[ejamer]

... I don't think it will happen unless there's clear fan demand for the game to return to Wii U.

Given how dead Wii U is (and how popular Switch is) I can't see this being worth the effort. The number of titles getting sold on Wii U eShop these days must be incredibly low.

Steam might be an option... but I don't really have a way to play Steam games. Whatever happened to the Steambox idea? Dead in the water by now?  It never seemed entirely practical in some ways, but on the other hand, there is a market for convenience and I'd love to have something affordable and easy to plug into my TV that would play a bunch of my old Steam games.