If you haven't already, it's time to begin packing up and moving on from your beloved Wii, folks. Nintendo has cut a number of the console's online services, likely to redirect focus towards the company's new, struggling console, the Wii U.
Announced back in April, as of June 28th, the following services for the system are no no longer active: the Nintendo Channel, News Channel, Forecast Channel, Everybody Votes Channel, Mii Contest Channel, and Data exchange with Wii Friends.
Additionally, Wii messages on the Wii Message Board, exchange of Mii characters on the Mii Channel and message/data exchange within some games will be disabled, though Nintendo hasn't released a list of which games will be affected.
According to the original official notification from Nintendo, remaining services that will be available include the Wii Shop Channel and "Today's Accomplishments" on the Wii Message Board.
Given the Wii U's availability since November, and Nintendo's attempts towards making the console as successful as its predecessor, the discontinuation of these services didn't exactly come as the biggest surprise when Nintendo announced it. The services discontinuation are also a likely result of the company trying to encourage sales for the offline only Wii Mini, but more so towards dedicating more efforts on the company's Wii U, which has had a rough go of it since its debut.
Removing options is always a bummer, particularly when its for a system as thoroughly adored as the Wii, but there's still a wide array of games available to players. Despite being around for only 7 years, it has built up a decent collection of games to offer. The library consists of over 1,200 games in all, and that's not counting the titles available for players to play on the Virtual Console or download from the Wii Shop Channel.
