The Wii Shop Channel is getting even thinner.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/29550
Several Sonic games on the Wii's Virtual Console will be pulled from the service in Japan, according to a report by Inside-Games.
The ones mentioned are the Mega Drive games; Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic & Knuckles as well as the Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog. They will be removed by the end of the month, though no specific reasons are given for the removal of the titles. Additionally, the fate of other Sonic titles is uncertain but will remain available for the time being.
This new announcement is the latest in a worrying trend for the shop in Japan. In total, 30 titles are planned to be removed by the month's end. This mostly contains Irem's libary and Hudson's WiiWare endeavors, but these latest deletions appear to be odd choices. We will keep you updated as the story progresses.
Some dl services have floor and ceiling limits on the software sales and it probally wasn't living up those limits, so the titles are getting pulled. I don't know the terms so I'm not going to speculate.
I had a hard time finding a replacement Wii, only to have someone tell me Nintendo wouldn't sell them anymore. I really don't believe it, such a thing is stupid. It's just like saying 'since we've made a 3DS now, let's stop selling all DS Lites and DSi now' And yet, you can still find them in stores easy.
But of course, with all the stuff leaving the Wii Shop, maybe it is true? I'm glad I got the black Wii while I could :'(
I had a hard time finding a replacement Wii, only to have someone tell me Nintendo wouldn't sell them anymore. I really don't believe it, such a thing is stupid.
I have concerns over what kind of foreshadowing this has for the Wii Virtual Console. The TMNT one made a bit more sense for issues over licensing, but R-Type and Sonic?
Might be paranoid thinking, but maybe they're pulling the games from Wii and intend on re-releasing them on Wii U?
What sense would it make to eliminate the way of purchasing these games that nets the most money? I don't know about PSN, but on XBLA the Sonic Genesis games are $5, while they're $8 on Wii.
Yeah, less revenue is still better than no revenue.
If the leasing theory was true, wouldn't other third-party games on the Virtual Console have expired long before Sonic's term was up?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Virtual_Console_games_(Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Virtual_Console_games_%28Japan))
[Master System] Sonic the Hedgehog Sega August 5, 2008 A
[Master System] Fantasy Zone Sega March 11, 2008 A
[Famicom] Gradius Konami December 2, 2006 A
There are third-party titles available since the launch of the service and I doubt they are being purchased more often than Sonic games.