Nintendo pulls plug on Wii online services

Nintendo pulls plug on Wii online services
Time to hit the retirement home?

Nintendo will shut the door on many of the Wii's online services on June 28, the company announced today.

A group of online features, including the message boards, will be shut down, while the main Nintendo channel, News, Forecast and Everybody Votes channels will also be saying goodbye. The Wii Shop will remain open for the time being.

"We at Nintendo sincerely thank you for your continued patronage of our company's products," says a statement on the Nintendo UK website, before breaking the bad news.

"We would like to inform you that a portion of the online services offered through the Wii console will be discontinued from 28th June 2013"

Wii will miss you

With the Wii U here, Nintendo is clearly looking to the future. But considering signs that the company was still dedicated to its motion-based console with the release of the Wii Mini, we're a little surprised it's cutting the cord to these services so early.

The Wii Mini does lack online capabilities so perhaps we should have seen this coming. With Nintendo to post its full-year results in a week or two, is it desperately trying to find ways of moving old Wii owners over to its new console?

Nintendo confirmed to TechRadar that this would be a Europe-wide move. However the message was also posted on the Japanese site, suggesting this is a global blackout.

Via MCV

Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.


Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.