Topic: Several Online Wii Channels Shutting Down in June

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

After six and a half years, news, weather, contests, and opinion polls will be no more. 

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/33834

Five channels and a number of online features on the Wii will be discontinued in June, Nintendo announced today.

The Nintendo Channel, Forecast Channel, News Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, and Check Mii Out Channel (known as the Mii Contest Channel in Europe) are all to be taken offline on this date, and will be inaccessible if a user tries to access them from the Wii menu.

Certain data exchange features will also be disabled, including transferring Mii characters and sending mail over the Wii Message Board. With the shutdown of WiiConnect24, online functionality in certain games may be affected as well.

These channels will be taken down on June 28 in Japan, Europe, and Australia. An exact date for North America has not been confirmed.

Other online channels, namely the Wii Shop Channel, Netflix, and for UK consoles, LOVEFiLM and the BBC iPlayer, will all remain available.

[Fatty The Hutt]

This news really made me sad. I honestly have a bit of a lump in my throat right now.
Goofing around with these channels is closely linked with spending time with my kids. The discontinuance is another indication, of many, that they aren't little anymore. Makes me a little sad and wistful.

[Khushrenada]

Too bad. Even know when I use my Wii, I'll still take a look at the Weather Channel. Guess come June, I'll just delete it since it will be of no use anymore.

[ejamer]

Metroid Prime 3/Trilogy owners, get your trading done soon. Various unlocks require you to swap vouchers with a friend using WiiConnect24 - and it seems like that functionality won't be available much longer. If the ability to swap vouchers is gone, the only way to unlock everything will be downloading someone else's save file.

[Bman87301]

Too bad. Even know when I use my Wii, I'll still take a look at the Weather Channel. Guess come June, I'll just delete it since it will be of no use anymore.

I'm pretty sure that and the News Channel are undeletable...

[Oblivion]

Metroid Prime 3/Trilogy owners, get your trading done soon. Various unlocks require you to swap vouchers with a friend using WiiConnect24 - and it seems like that functionality won't be available much longer. If the ability to swap vouchers is gone, the only way to unlock everything will be downloading someone else's save file.

Only more reason to rerelease the trilogy on the Wii U.

[pololmejor]

uu Nuuu. Man that's sad, too damn sad!

[Ceric]

I personally was hoping the channels would just migrate to the Wii U.  Especially the Voting and weather one.

[Enner]

Of the five, I'll miss the Weather Channel and the Nintendo Channel the most.

[jvgsjeff]

I can understand shutting down channels like the weather and the news, but why take away the ability to send messages and exchange Miis? That sucks if that part is true.

[rlse9]

That really sucks, I still use the News channel regularly to catch up on the news.  I guess it's expected but it still sucks and it's part of what I don't like about gaming becoming so online dependent, it's something that will eventually get taken away.

[GK]

I guess it's expected but it still sucks and it's part of what I don't like about gaming becoming so online dependent, it's something that will eventually get taken away.

Feeling the same way.

[Shaymin]

Nintendo hates democracy. What's next, they're coming for the last copies of Earthbound?

[smallsharkbigbite]

Knew this would happen at somepoint, but it feels too soon to me.  The Wii U will barely be 7 months old and they are shutting down all the services for the Wii?  I could partially understand it if the Wii U was going gangbusters and they needed the servers for that, but it seems they are shutting these servers down to make them inactive. 

[funguy11]

What about Wi-Fi enabled games like Brawl?

[TJ Spyke]

What about Wi-Fi enabled games like Brawl?

The article says "online functionality in certain games may be affected as well.". My guess is that means online play may be ended (though some games may last longer).

[GK]

I think by "online functionality" they mean features like the use of the Weather channel for Nights: Journey of Dreams or the match replays, & custom stages being sent out for Brawl. Probably could affect Mario Kart Wii's channel as well.

[UncleBob]

This makes me sad. Not because I really use any of these features, but because I'm spending all this time playing Need For Speed and, one day, EA will shut down the online features of it and all my accomplishments will be worthless.  Sadface.

[Shaymin]

I think the big thing this will wipe out is Metroid Prime 3's trading.

So basically, nothing of value is lost.

[ShyGuy]

This is what Microsoft will do to EVERYTHING on the Durango.